LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to inaugurate the country’s first national emergency helpline – 911-- on July 25.

It is said to be a tentative deadline to inaugurate the multi-billion scheme named Pakistan Emergency Help Line (PEHL), merging all the emergency service numbers into one. The Prime Minister Secretariat derived this concept from USA’s helpline 911 to give the proposed scheme ‘PEHL’ the national identity.

The work to establish the national helpline began after the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway rape case in which a woman had to go through a trying ordeal and failed to get through any helpline and seek help of government departments due to ‘jurisdiction dispute’. The woman was gang-raped in front of her children in September last year, prompting Prime Minister Imran Khan to launch Pakistan’s first toll-free helpline number that will be accessed by people of all the provinces to avoid any such incident in future.

During investigation into the gang-rape incident, it was realised that many helplines were functioning at a time but people were confused which one to go for in any particular area to seek emergency help from the department concerned. The National Highways and Motorway Police and the Lahore police also were at variance about the area of jurisdiction where the crime had been committed.

Prime minister is scheduled to open the initiative

“All modalities have been finalised in a series of meetings held with the provinces to establish the first national emergency helpline 911,” national focal person for the helpline Adil Safi told Dawn. Mr Safi, who is the deputy secretary at the Prime Minister House, said the last and important meeting with the provinces in this respect would be held next week to give nod to the PM’s scheme.

Before launching the country’s first helpline, experts studied models of the universal helplines of the UK, the USA and some other countries. He said initially the experts proposed ‘786’ as Pakistan’s national helpline number but later it was replaced by 911.

The national helpline number has been established under the Ministry of Interior with its head office in the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad. The helpline will be run by many operators who will work from the Central Control Room at the NCOC office.

The provinces have been directed to establish control rooms in their respective jurisdictions by making appointment of ‘huge brigade’ of trained and qualified operators and other staff.

Mr Safi said all the existing emergency numbers would be linked with the national helpline under the proposed scheme. The staff would receive all emergency calls at the central control room from where they would transfer them to the departments concerned for speedy action.

“Initially, the four kinds of acute emergencies would be dealt with on the national helpline which would be related to the police, fire brigade, ambulance service and the National Highways and Motorway Police,” said the focal person. “This helpline number can be dialed through mobile phones from any part of the country to avail oneself of various services even if the handler (caller) has no access to the network,” he said.

All the emergency calls would be attended ‘directly and live’ by the deputed staff who would transfer the same to the officials concerned for speedy action.

A unique feature has been incorporated in the new system under which a ‘red light’ would keep giving an alarm till the redress of the complaint and the caller’s satisfactory reaction is received against his plaint, he said.

Answering a question, he said the government had also sought support from the mobile phone companies to ensure the smooth implementation of the service besides taking the PTA and other departments on board.

A mobile app had also been made part of the facility to help the rescue centres and police trace the location of people in emergency and reach them promptly, Mr Safi said.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2021