Pak Army’s Corps of Engineers under the command and control of Engineer-in-Chief (E-N-C) provide necessary help to the civil authorities to carry out rescue and relief operations during floods. Provincial Governments facilitate Pak Army in providing necessary logistic support/equipment (boats, life jackets, vehicles, tents etc.) for such operations.
Pakistan Army’s flood related functions encompass all the three phases of flood operations from the pre-flood to post flood phases including the important flood phase. Pre-flood phase is the flood preparatory phase during which the adequacy and serviceability of the flood fighting equipment is ensured. Pre-flood meetings are also held at the Corps Head
Quarters and Engineer Directorate, GHQ in order to review the arrangements of PIDs, PDMAs & Federal Line Agencies for handling flood situation.
Pre-flood inspections of the flood protection structures are carried out by the respective Commander Corps of Engineers alongwith concerned field formations of Provincial Irrigation Departments for their respective areas to ensure that the flood protection structures (Bunds, Barrages, Spurs etc.) are in satisfactory state of maintenance. Deficiencies, if any, are brought into the notice of PIDs. Availability of flood fighting material and sufficient stock of explosives is ensured at pre-determined breaching sections to activate the pre-determined breaching sections, whenever required.
An officer of the 4 Corps Engineers is placed on duty in the Flood Warning Centre, Lahore, to keep a close watch on the flood situation. All flood forecasts and warnings are communicated to the CC Engineers 4 Corps in time, which are transmitted to the D.G. Engineers and all other CC of the Engineers. In the event of floods, units of the Pak Army move out to their respective areas of responsibility and carry out the relief and rescue operations in coordination with the respective civil administration.
Besides above, a post flood coordination meeting is held under the Chairmanship of Engineer-in-Chief/D.G. Engineers to discuss the performance of all flood management related agencies with the view to bring about the necessary improvements in future.
