Emergency service: Citizens misuse Rescue 1122 helpline in Bhakkar

People call helpline for information of cellular packages

BHAKKAR: Rescue 1122 received a large number of irrelevant or hoax calls after every minute in 2018. People call the helpline for the information of cellular packages and to know the credit of their mobile phone account.

Rescue 1122 Bhakar Spokesperson Mohammad Bilal said the emergency service received 372,355 calls in 2018 out of which only 15% were emergency calls including road accidents, fire, buildings collapse, drowning and cylinder blasts. The Rescues 1122 dealt with 13,156 emergency calls while six people died in different incidents. As many as 359,199 calls were irrelevant while 2,238 traffic accidents occurred and the injured were shifted to hospitals after providing them with first aid. There were 1,844 male and 590 women victims of different accidents. As many as 745 motorcycle accidents were reported. As many as 137 minors were also injured while 5,018 patients were shifted to different city hospitals for better medical aid. Rescue 1122 Operator Tajwa said the citizens were excessively misusing this number. “Sometimes we receive calls for cell phone credit and sometimes the callers ask for the subscription of different cellular packages.

Many people call and hand over the phone to the children,” she said. “They should realise that they might face an emergency in the future and because we block their number for three days they would be unable to contact Rescue 1122 for help.”

The Rescue 1122 said because of such continuous irreverent calls, emergency calls could be missed. He appealed to the citizens to avoid making hoax or irrelevant calls.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2019.