EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICES IN PESHAWAR

The recent terror attacks on Army Public School and Imam Bargah in Hayatabad, Peshawar once again highlighted the continuing fragile law and order situation that the country is facing in general and the province of KPK in particular. The civilian emergency response mounted to these events and those of a similar nature in the past can at best be described as grossly insufficient and well below the desired standards. Having been at the heart of ‘war on terror”, and faced with numerous bomb blasts and other forms of militant activities over successive years in the recent past, one would expect a mature and systematic approach inculcated in the country’s response to emergency. Sadly this has not been the case and the same chaos and indifference by the concerned authorities is seen at the site of occurrence, during transportation and in the hospitals as was the case before these events were a regular feature. To add to the spectrum of these woes is the lack of any coordinated efforts to rehabilitate the victims either psychologically, physically or financially. As I searched for an effective system globally adopted for disaster management of various scales, I came across the existence of various national and international organizations tasked to ensure preparedness and swift response in event of any such eventualities. International organizations such as Red Cross, The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS), The International Recovery Platform (IRP) and United nations organization help reduce vulnerability and assist cope with natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, industrial sabotage and other incidences of significant humanitarian crisis. While some of these organizations may help creating awareness and offer technical guidance in managing manmade disasters, they have a very limited role in practically addressing incidents related to localize events of terrorism. This responsibility is borne by respective governments in light of the prevailing law and order situation and resource availability. Different countries then have other umbrella organizations overlooking management of emergency situations arising from terror related disasters in addition to natural calamities eg the Civil Contingencies secretariat in UK, the Federal emergency management authority in US and the National disaster response force in India. In Pakistan unfortunately there is no concept of an organized response to events resulting in multiple or mass casualties