LAHORE: Pakistan Markazi Muslim League’s (PMML) Khidmat-e-Khalq Department has announced plans to establish 25 rescue centres in major cities and launch a district-level First Responder Program, as part of a broader push to expand the party’s disaster-response and welfare network.
The announcement came at a meeting of the department held at PMML’s Central Secretariat in Lahore, chaired by Chaudhry Shafeeq-ur-Rehman Waraich. Central office-bearers, district heads of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Department, and coordinators of the Muslim Rescue Mission attended the session.
Participants reviewed ongoing welfare projects, organisational matters, and plans to expand relief and rescue activities nationwide. The meeting also discussed measures to strengthen the Muslim Rescue Mission and improve its emergency response capacity.
Addressing the gathering, Waraich said natural disasters, floods, road accidents and other emergencies require trained personnel, appropriate rescue equipment and an effective local response network — framing the new initiatives as a response to that gap.
Waraich announced that 25 rescue centres would be established in major cities during the first phase of the Muslim Rescue Mission. Alongside this, a First Responder Program will be rolled out at the district level, under which volunteers will be trained in first aid, basic life support, CPR, accident response, fire safety, emergency response and basic disaster management.
The scope of the training curriculum — spanning medical basics to fire and disaster response — signals an attempt to build a broad-based civilian volunteer corps capable of acting as a first line of response before official emergency services arrive on scene, a model similar in concept to community first-responder networks used elsewhere in the country.
The meeting approved a slate of appointments for Muslim Rescue Mission coordinators. Abdul Shakoor was appointed coordinator for Multan, Sohail Arshad for Islamabad, Syed Hasnain Shah for Gujranwala, Abid Hussain for Sheikhupura, Abdul Rehman for Lahore, Rashid Mahmood for Kasur, and Umair Arshad for Gujrat. Mir Amir Imran was appointed to assist with training courses and sessions.
For broader organisational coordination, Abrar Waheed was named Coordinator of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Department for Punjab, while Hamza Shahid was appointed Coordinator for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Waraich expressed confidence that the newly appointed coordinators would strengthen rescue activities, volunteer coordination, training programs and emergency preparedness in their respective areas.
In a move to push the welfare apparatus closer to the grassroots, the meeting also decided to establish Khidmat-e-Khalq Desks at PMML Houses at the Union Council level. These desks are intended to coordinate local welfare activities, including medical camps, blood donation drives, support for widows, volunteer training, condolence services and reconciliation committees.
Participants reaffirmed their commitment to developing the Khidmat-e-Khalq Department into an organised, nationwide public service network, with the Muslim Rescue Mission focused on rescue operations, training, preparedness and early emergency response at the district and grassroots levels — while supporting, rather than replacing, established rescue and disaster management institutions during emergencies.
PMML is the current name of a party that originated as the Milli Muslim League (MML), launched in August 2017 as a political vehicle associated with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). Pakistan’s Election Commission rejected MML’s initial bid for registration in 2017 on the recommendation of the interior ministry, citing its links to JuD, which the United Nations and the United States have designated a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The US State Department separately listed MML itself as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2018. Courts later intervened in the registration dispute, and the party re-emerged as Pakistan Markazi Muslim League in 2022. The party has previously denied that it operates as an extension of Saeed’s proscribed organisations. This history is relevant context for readers assessing the political party behind Monday’s welfare and rescue announcement, even as the specific programs detailed — rescue centres, first-responder training and community welfare desks — are presented by the party as civic and humanitarian in nature.
Pakistan’s formal emergency response architecture includes provincial services such as Rescue 1122 and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which coordinate ambulance, fire and flood-relief operations. However, recurring floods, road accidents and other emergencies — particularly in smaller towns and rural districts — have long strained the capacity of official responders, creating space for political, religious and community organisations to run parallel volunteer rescue networks. Such groups often position themselves as supplementary responders working alongside state agencies rather than as substitutes for them, a framing echoed in Monday’s meeting.
Whether PMML’s Muslim Rescue Mission can scale to the 25-city footprint announced, and how its volunteer training program will be coordinated with official disaster-management bodies, remains to be seen as the initiative moves from announcement to implementation.
Leave a Reply