A few years ago, my cousin passed away in Gwadar. His wife had to transport his body from Gwadar to Karachi in a Toyota Hiace because she could not get hold of an ambulance. That memory resurfaced when I heard that ambulance services were unavailable to carry the dead bodies of the martyred cadets in the attack on the Police Training Academy in Quetta. \r\n \r\nEven if one tries to justify the legitimacy of such issues by claiming that Gwadar and Quetta are ‘remote’ areas, why is there a shortage of ambulances in Karachi and in other developed cities of Pakistan?
\r\nApart from the shortage, another imminent problem is that the ambulances that are available are not stocked with any life-saving equipment. Only Aman Foundation’s ambulances are equipped with crucial apparatuses and machinery like oxygen cylinders, a defibrillator, suction machine, splints, a spine board, collapsible stretchers and nebulizers. |
