KOHAT: The people of Kohat district have demanded two ambulances for Rescue 15 emergency service.

It is to mention here that there were two ambulances with Rescue 15, but the one with VVIP facilities was shifted to Peshawar after the death of DIG Abid Ali who had arranged the vehicles. The other one became dysfunctional after sometime, and has been parked in motor transport department for want of repairs, Rescue 15 Inspector Muzammil Khan told Dawn. He said without ambulance the Rescue 15 was of no use.

People complained that as they could not avail the ambulances from both the Women and Children Hospital and KDA Divisional Headquarters Hospital, Kohat, because relevant phone numbers at the respective health centres often remained dead in cases of emergencies, and they had to depend on the Rescue 15. They demanded that the emergency service must of one or two ambulances at its disposal to meet any emergency.

The residents said telephone exchange of the KDA hospital had been faulty for the last one year, but the hospital administration was not taking interest in repairing it. Similarly, the telephone of the emergency of Women and Children Hospital has been out of order for a decade now.

Manzoor Ahmed, former president of Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and other philanthropists have offered to pay for the fuel of the ambulances if the same was made available to the Rescue 15.

Mr Manzoor also offered to pay for the repair of the ambulance of the Rescue 15, which is lying abandoned for want of repairs.

TRIBUTES PAID TO NUSRAT BHUTTO: The People’s Youth Organisation (PYO), Kohat division, has paid glowing tributes to Begum Nusrat Bhutto for her sacrifices for democracy.

PYO’s divisional president Bilal Hussain, while addressing a public meeting in Hangu in memory of Nusrat Bhutto, said she lost her husband late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, her two sons and daughter, late Benazir Bhutto, for supremacy of law. She did not back out from her principle stand despite suffering physically and mentally, he added.

Bilal Hussain said Behgum Bhutto was tortured and kept in jail several times but did not succumb to the pressures.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2016