The caretaker government in Punjab has decided to pull the plug on an emergency helpline, modelled on the American emergency service 911, for being 'ineffective' in comparison to existing emergency helplines and for missing other goals, all the while running up a bill of Rs473.4 million in a single financial year of 2022-23, say documents seen by The Friday Times.
After an incident of a woman being raped on the highway in Sialkot, former prime minister Imran Khan had in 2021 announced plans to set up a single number for the public to report all kinds of emergencies across the country, the Pakistan Emergency Helpline (Pehel-911). Since the emergency services, which would respond under the system, devolved to the provinces per the 18th Amendment, the project was to be individually implemented by each province.
In a meeting of the provincial cabinet, the additional chief secretary, responsible for the Home Department, briefed about establishing PEHEL-911 in the province. The idea of the singular helpline was to provide citizens access to various emergency and first responder services operating under the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) at a single number apart from tackling response times of these services.
"On December 10, 2021, the then chief minister approved that from Punjab, Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) would be a partner in the implementation of PEHEL-911 with the National Telecom Corporation (NTC)," the additional chief secretary recalled.
The then Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar approved the project in December 2021 and began operating in April 2022.
The additional chief secretary further informed said that the project would be run as a pilot and based on its operational success in 2022-2023, the Punjab government will decide whether to push ahead with the integration initiative or not.
"Subsequently, the Punjab Finance Department released Rs200 million for the project for operational costs incurred between January 2022, to June 2022. PEHEL was inaugurated on April 3, 2022," the official said.
Operational problems
A senior bureaucrat who was part of the cabinet meeting on shutting down PEHEL told The Friday Times that when the service was formed, a steering committee was set up to oversee the project and resolve any issues it encounters.
The committee highlighted that the project partner, NTC, must resolve some issues.
These issues included:
- Integrating PEHEL-911 with the system of existing emergency service providers such as Pukaar/Madadgaar 15, Rescue 1122 and Punjab Patrol Polie (for issues on the highway) 1124.
- Removal of interactive voice responses (IVRs).
- Call transfer facility
- Case association facility in case multiple people report the same incident.
- Feedback mechanism, and,
- Training of PEHEL-911 agents to handle emergency calls.
"Follow-up meetings were convened with the NTC for the resolution of these issues. However, these issues were not resolved," the senior bureaucrat noted.
Caller location feature
The official added that one of the issues they ran into was that the NTC could not provide the service's signature feature, whereby the service could access the caller's exact location to dispatch the relevant first responder service.
This feature was to be offered by PEHEL-911 across the country and would set it apart from the existing emergency services in the country.
"Rescue 1122 have been using advanced technology and had well-established coordination with Pukaar-15 to cater to untoward situations," a senior official maintained.
PEHEL-911 performance
The official stated that from February 2022 to April 2023, PEHEL-911 fielded some 118,262 calls.
By comparison, Pukaar-15 - set up over a decade and a half ago, had received 2,317,218 calls in this period.
Rescue 1122, which was also set up nearly a decade ago, received 1,456,043 calls during this period.
Pulling the cord
The Punjab Finance Department pointed to the project's high cost and low performance to the provincial home department.
Responding to the observations of the finance department, the home recommended shutting down PEHEL-911 and liabilities of NTC accrued for the financial year 2022-2023 should be cleared.
For the financial year 2022-2023, the service cost the taxpayers Rs473.4 million, and this amount will have to be cleared subject to the provision of vouched accounts for the financial years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023.
A senior official privy to the development told The Friday Times that the finance department had endorsed the proposal of the administrative department and recommended that the matter be placed before the cabinet for approval as it is a major policy decision with major financial implications.
It was decided to include relevant funds in the provincial budget provision to resolve pending liabilities of PEHEL in the ongoing fiscal year.
"Provision of pending liabilities of last CFY 2022-2023, the administrative department may get [funds] allocated in the budget of the current financial year 2023-2024 subject to the availability of utilisation status along with vouched accounts of already released funds for FYs 2021-22 and 2022-2023," read cabinet documents seen by The Friday Times.
Subsequently, the provincial interim cabinet decided to close PEHEL-911.
Why PEHEL 'failed'?
A senior official who was previously associated with PEHEL-911 said there were multiple reasons for the failure of the PEHEL-911 helpline.
"It was initiated in haste on the directives of former prime minister Imran Khan after the Sialkot rape incident, which was a high-profile case," he said, refusing to give his name since he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Discussing the performance of the service, the official noted that it was quite new, and many people were unaware whether this was an active number. They were far more aware of the long-established emergency numbers 1122 for rescue services and 15 for police.
Further, the existing emergency services were far more equipped, integrated and with trained staff to address problems faced by the people.
"This project was mismanaged and was not properly thought out," he said, adding that comparing the performance of the services over just one year was unjustified because people frequently called the other, known helplines.
Give it another chance
Speaking to The Friday Times, former federal information technology and telecommunications minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-Pakistan) leader Syed Aminul Haque said that central, integrated helplines, such as the 911 service in the US, exist across the globe.
"The main concept behind launching this helpline was to integrate all the helplines, including the police, fire brigade and others," he said.
Haque, who was in the federal cabinet when the helpline was set up, maintained that the helpline started shortly after the sad incident where a woman was raped on the Sialkot motorway, and the woman was not t aware of whom she should call for support.
"The caretaker Punjab cabinet should revisit its decision [to shut the service] and find out ways to improve this helpline and fix the loopholes in its operations instead of closing it down completely," he suggested, adding that it may not be a prudent decision. I would request the cabinet to brainstorm and work out a plan to improve its effectiveness.