‘Time for hoax calls is up’

More than 20 million fake calls received over the past 10 years

PESHAWAR: A torrent of hoax calls has put additional pressure on the already overstretched staff of the provincial rescue helpline, resulting in delayed response to genuine emergencies. But now, ludicrous or hoax callers will face the consequence.

“Yes, we will chase them, and we will be following the procedures by first serving them with notices,” warned Director General Rescue 1122, Dr. Khateer Ahmad.

According to the data available with the Express Tribune, responders answering calls made to 1122, an emergency telephone line, received 21million calls over the last decade. Out of the 21million, the helpline answered 14million false calls that had no emergency to report.  A total of 5.4million such calls originated from Peshawar.

“When the lines are busy, we fail to respond to genuine emergencies,” said Secretary Rescue and Relief Abid Majeed.  Offenders, he said, should face penalties for misleading the rescue services. The results of their actions can be tragic, with rescue teams attending bogus calls consequently unable to deal with real emergencies.

“Telecom regulator must provide details about individuals who make false calls to emergency services,”Majeed added. He said details provided by the telecom regulator will allow them to register police complaints.

Data reveals a surge in irrelevant calls all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). The helpline received more than 5 million fake, obnoxious or irrelevant calls from district Abbottabad, 1.3million from Dera Ismail Khan, 0.9million from Mardan, 0.5million from Nowshera and 0.3million from district Swat followed by thousands from other districts. However, despite the presence of laws against fake calls, no action was taken against these callers.

According to the K-P Emergency Rescue Service Act, 2012, ‘Any person who wilfully or without any reasonable excuse, disobeys or violates any provision [of the Act], shall be deemed to have committed a bail able offense punishable with simple imprisonment for six months or with a fine not exceeding rupees fifty thousand or with both.’  Determined to tackle malicious callers and time wasters, responders on the emergency helpline have lodged several complaints.  In some cases, the telecom regulator has provided the caller’s details.

In addition to the fake calls, the helpline has also answered 70,909 road emergencies and 214,070 medical emergencies. They have also attended 10,539 calls related to fires, 6,209 calls related to bullet injuries, 692 roof collapse events, 642 calls related to explosions, and some 7,923 general emergency calls.

Officials firmly believe that a crackdown against fake callers will help in attending real emergencies more efficiently in the future.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2020.