Attock Civil Defence : Bomb squad with no tools, cars with no tyres

Official spills beans on sordid state of first responders; admin claims all is well.

RAWALPINDI:

The district civil defence department in Attock is short of the required staff and lacks basic facilities to cope with any kind of emergency.

The Attock district falls in category ‘A’ as a highly sensitive area due to recurring incidents of terrorism and its proximity to the volatile Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

An official in the Attock district administration told The Express Tribune that the civil defence department has been working in a rented building without a head for the last three years.

The official, requesting anonymity, added that the situation was precarious as the city had sensitive installations and buildings such as Kamra Aeronautical Complex, Artillery Centre Attock, Pakistan Ordinance Factory Sanjwal, Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project, Pakistan State Oil depots, LPG storage tanks and a number of oil wells.

The department has been without a district civil defence officer for the last three years.

It has also been without a regular bomb disposal commander, bomb disposal technician, clerks, watchmen, and peons, despite the fact that all these posts are lawfully sanctioned, the official said, adding that instead of two instructors at the department, there is just one.

The department is housed in a rented building and even the rent has not been paid for the last year-and-a-half. Utility bills such as electricity, telephone and gas are also unpaid, the official added.

For the purpose of transportation, the department has a ‘well-aged’ Suzuki pick up that is without tyres and an old motorcycle that desperately needs a mechanic’s touch. Under these circumstances it is near impossible for the department to cater to the emergency needs of seven tehsils in such a sensitive district, the official said.

Citing an incident, the official said recently the bomb disposal commander, a retired army officer who gets Rs300 every day, found it hard to reach Hasanabdal to make security arrangements for Sikh pilgrims.

Attock District Coordination Officer (DCO) Shakeel Ahmed admitted that there was a shortage of staff in the department. However, the DCO claimed that the basic tools for bomb disposal had been provided to the department and the provision of other facilities would soon be completed.

The head of the Attock administration said the provincial government had been apprised of the situation and a request had been made to appoint a regular district civil defence officer to improve the department’s performance.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2011.