RAWALPINDI - Amid all the political crises the country is facing, unavailability of ambulances is adding to the woes of Rawalpindi residents. Abdul Sattar had to hire a taxi cab to shift his father, who sustained severe head injury in road accident at Dhamial Road on Wednesday morning, to hospital after rescuers refused to provide him ambulance.
According to Abdul Sattar, his 63-years-old father Fazal Hussain was riding a motorcycle when a speeding car hit him at Biscuit Factory Morr. The old man got injured while nearby shopkeepers rescued him and shifted him in a shop from where they called Sattar informing him about the accident. He rushed to the scene and hired a taxi cab keeping in view the condition of his father to shift him hospital. He said that the condition of his father started deteriorating at Bakra Mandi Chowk, where he made his mind to get Rescue 1122 ambulance to get some immediate treatment. However, he was refused to be provided with an ambulance by three rescuers deputed at Kalma Chowk station, who said that the only vehicle present there was non-functional.
“Seeing the distress and gloominess on my face,” Sattar said, “the rescuers tried to start the engine of ambulance by pushing it on road but in vain.” Despite the helplessness, he managed to shift his father to DHQ in the taxi cab.
When contacted, a Rescue 1122 spokesman confirmed that the ambulance in Kalma Chowk station was non-functional. He added that nowadays only 5 ambulances were providing emergency services to public in five stations of Rawalpindi. He said that the Punjab Emergency Service had deputed some 28 to 30 ambulances in Islamabad Red Zone to tackle any kind of emergency in case of clash between police and protestors.
"To meet any emergency in Islamabad, PES has also pulled out ambulances from other districts like Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Gujar Khan and Murree and dispatched them to Red Zone," he said. He informed that two vehicles of Rescue 1122 had also been reserved for community service and protocol.