The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) has been established under the Punjab Emergency Service Act, 2006 for professional management of emergencies such as road traffic accidents, building collapse, fires, hazardous material incidents and disasters. The establishment of Rescue 1122 was necessitated after failure of repeated attempts to revitalize and modernize the Civil Defence organization and Municipal Fire Brigades. This was a very difficult task due to the resistance from these organizations, absence of trained emergency personnel or modern emergency services training institute in Pakistan. Even the emergency departments of teaching hospitals did not have trained emergency paramedics. A few ambulances available with NGOs were merely patient transport vehicles without equipment and trained staff.