KARACHI: The ambulance services of Edhi Foundation, Chippa Ambulance Service and Khidmat-e-Khalque Foundation (KKF) have been paralyzed on Saturday due to closure of filling stations of compressed natural gas (CNG) in the city for 36 hours since Friday night.
Anwar Kazmi of Edhi Foundation said that 100 out of 150 ambulances were taken off the road as they exhausted their fuel filled last night.
"If we don't get CNG in next 4 to 5 hours, the remaining 50 ambulances will also be off the road. We are in a fix and cannot continue to attend calls from patients, injured of road accidents and in firing incidents", he added.
Kazmi said that most of these ambulances are on CNG and cannot be converted on petrol for some reasons.
A spokesman of Chippa ambulance service said that only a few of 120 ambulance fleet are operating and that too on petrol. He said that they were facing extreme difficulty in shifting accident victims and serious patients to hospitals.
The spokesman said that ambulances should be exempted from this weekly closure as these ambulances work under Trusts dedicated to serve the people.
"We are only taking serious patients, traffic and firing victims and asking people to take their patients in their private vehicles", he added.
An official of KKF said that they had special arrangements to fill their ambulances with CNG Friday, but most of them have consumed their fuel. They are now grounded, he added.
It may be noted that Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd and CNG associations had agreed to close the filling stations in the city for 36 hours starting from Friday midnight till Sunday noon because of closure of Bhit gas field for annual-turn-around effective from April 12, 2011.
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