KARACHI, Feb 17: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has extended the deadline for the change of the Edhi ambulance number to April 30.

Speaking to Dawn on Tuesday, PTA chairman Shahzada Alam said the deadline had been extended to help the Edhi Foundation widely publicize the new code. He added that the previous ambulance service number 115 would cease to exist.

"The telecoms regulator is aware that new ambulance services with extensive areas of operation are coming up all over the country. The PTA has started a new series of ambulance service numbers, starting with 1150 which has been allocated to the Edhi Ambulance service.

It will give the Punjab Ambulance service the code 1151. The next ambulance service to come up would get the code 1152 and so on," he explained.

Mr Alam denied that the Edhi ambulance number had been changed to help "an influential person of Punjab". He made clear that the Punjab Ambulance Service number would be given to the Punjab government.