ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday launched a 911 national helpline to provide all emergency relief services through a single platform.
“Now, every citizen in any part of the country will get the state’s response (in case of any emergency). This is a major move forward towards our mission statement of making Pakistan an Islamic welfare state,” the prime minister said addressing the launching ceremony of the helpline.
The integrated Pakistan Emergency Helpline (PEHEL)-911 would provide emergency services like fire brigade, police, health assistance, disaster recovery and motorway police, etc. A needy person will have to dial just 911 and the call center would forward the call to the relevant government agency.
The prime minister said the government was striving to ease people’s lives as in any welfare state, the citizens should have the confidence of receiving the state’s response in case of any threat to life and property.
The prime minister, who earlier launched the helpline by pushing a button, also lauded the interior ministry and other collaborating departments for establishing the helpline said that it would also require constant coordination among all provinces. “This project should have all the provinces on the same page because it was about the benefit of all,” he remarked.
The prime minister said the PEHEL helpline would also enable the government to maintain the crimes data besides assessing the requirement of resources in different sectors.
Reiterating his vision of making Pakistan a welfare state, he said his government had launched Sehat Insaf Card providing Rs1 million health insurance to every family across the country, except the opposition-led Sindh province.
He said the government introduced a core national single curriculum to end the discriminatory education system and also launched multiple welfare initiatives under the Ehsaas and Kamyab Jawan Programme including skill training, interest-free loans, housing loans, and farmers’ loans.
Moreover, the introduction of a legal aid system to provide free legal services to needy people was also on his government’s agenda. He said the country could not achieve progress sans inclusivity and without breaking the elite system.
