KARACHI, Feb 16: The Edhi Foundation on Monday strongly criticized the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for changing its short dial-code '115' allocated for its ambulance service throughout the country to '1150'.

A senior official of the Edhi Foundation told Dawn that the PTA, through a letter, had informed the foundation that the short code allocated to the Edhi Ambulance Services would be changed with effect from Feb 29, citing administrative reasons.

The foundation's official, Rizwan Edhi, said that '115' had been the short code for Edhi ambulance for 20 years. The ambulance service received as many as 250,000 distress calls a year in Karachi alone and 900,000 such calls throughout the country, he said.

He alleged that an influential personality of Punjab wanted to start his ambulance service and had asked for the allotment of the short code of "115" from the PTA. However, according to the PTA, it acted as per the powers given under the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (Re-Organisation) Act 1996.