LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Information and Culture Azma Bokhari has announced that 39 new fire vehicles have been handed over to 39 tehsils across the province, describing the move as part of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s effort to bring Rescue Services in line with modern requirements.
According to an official statement issued on Thursday, the minister said the project to extend Fire Rescue Services to these 39 tehsils carries a total cost of Rs 1.884 billion. A total of 429 personnel will be deployed under the scheme, comprising 273 firefighters and 156 drivers.
Beyond the vehicles themselves, the minister said Fire Rescue personnel will be equipped with 78 breathing apparatus sets, 273 protective suits and communication equipment. The stated objective is to guarantee timely emergency response and effective firefighting capability at the tehsil level — the administrative tier where fire cover has historically been thinnest, and where a blaze in a market or grain store has often meant waiting for a unit dispatched from the district headquarters.
The spokesperson stated in the press release that approval has already been granted for expanding Fire Rescue Services to all tehsils of Punjab. An allocation of Rs 1.88 billion has been made for the project under the current Annual Development Programme, and the work is scheduled for completion by June 2027.
That timeline places the initiative squarely within the provincial government’s ongoing build-out of the Punjab Emergency Service. Rescue 1122 began as a single ambulance pilot in Lahore in October 2004 and was formalised under the Punjab Emergency Service Act 2006; fire and rescue wings were added later, and the service has since been replicated by other provinces.
Azma Bokhari said Fire and Rescue Services are fully operational across Punjab, with Fire Rescue Services now established in every district. To date, she said, Rescue Punjab has responded promptly to more than 297,338 fire incidents and, through modern and professional firefighting, helped avert potential losses exceeding Rs 794 billion.
She added that Rescue Punjab has emerged among the world’s leading emergency services, and that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has allocated the largest amount in Punjab’s history for Rescue Services — funding now being channelled into improvement and modernisation.
The minister said a parallel project to install 975 fire hydrants in commercial markets across Punjab is under way, while safety surveys of 2,449 high-rise buildings have been completed to assess their fire arrangements.
Life Saver and basic firefighting training has been conducted at all DHQ and THQ hospitals in the province, she said, alongside mock exercises to test hospital readiness. More than 5,000 Community Emergency Response Teams have been established across Punjab, and on the directions of the Chief Minister, a comprehensive action plan to prevent fire incidents in hospitals has been prepared and is now being implemented.
Azma Bokhari said the total budget of the Punjab Emergency Services Department for the financial year 2025-26 stood at Rs 21.625 billion, with the revised figure at Rs 22.513 billion.
The smaller tehsils residents, the practical test will be response time — the metric Rescue 1122 has built its reputation on, with an average of around seven minutes maintained across districts. Shifting that standard from district headquarters down to the tehsil level is the real ambition behind the Rs 1.88 billion figure, and the June 2027 deadline is when it will be measurable.
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