Sindh home dept sets up control room for 'any untoward emergency'

KARACHI: The government of Sindh on Wednesday night formally set up the provincial control room in accordance with "the provision of War Book", a notification read.

According to the notification, the Control Room — of which Saifullah Abro, the additional secretary for internal security is the in-charge — has "been operationalized for the purpose of preparedness, monitoring, reporting, taking preventive measures and issuing real-time instructions regarding any untoward emergency situation".

"The Control Room will have representation and support from Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Sindh and Directorate of Civil Defence," it added.

The development comes subsequent to a video conference with "the Federal Government at the office of the Chief Secretary Sindh" that took place earlier the same day.

The notification, a copy of which is available with Geo News, further emphasised coordination with the federal and provincial counterparts, as well as other "authorities, autonomous bodies, corporations, agencies".

All relevant bodies and institutions "shall report any untoward / unusual incident or situation immediately to the Provincial Control Room", with a report on the daily ongoings to be sent by 4PM.

The departments are required to nominate focal persons for coordination and to take "stock of their human resources, facilities, assets and machinery".

The leaves of employees in all the aforementioned departments were also cancelled.