Ambulance workers protest parking restriction

More than 100 ambulance owners, drivers and helpers observed a complete strike against the stoppage of parking of ambulances under the Metrobus track of Murree Road, Chandni Chowk.

The protesters parked ambulances in front of the offices of the Rawalpindi Division Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner (DC) as protest and protested against this operation at Murir Chowk, Kachhari Chowk.

The protest followed the administration's move to shift the place of parking for ambulances five kilometres away from hospitals to the Pirwadhai general bus stand or away from the city.

Protesting ambulance drivers said that there should be designated places for ambulances outside every government and private medical facility for easy and economical transportation of patients and dead bodies.

Dozens of drivers and helpers raised placards and banners and chanted slogans. Long queues of ambulances were formed from Murir Chowk to Kachhari Chowk, leaving the traffic flow out of gear for about five hours.

Drivers Owais and Faizan said that they usually parked their ambulances beneath the Metrobus track and their parking hardly affected the traffic flow.

They said ambulances were parked at the point which is near Benazir Bhutto General Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital, Civil Hospital Holy Family Hospital and Cardiology Hospital besides a dozen private hospitals in the vicinity.

The decision to shift ambulances from here out of the city is stupid and wrong, the protesting drivers said, adding ambulances parked far from the city would provide no relief to the patients of all hospitals and increase the risk to human lives.

A total of 170 small and big private ambulances operate across the city and each ambulance has an owner, a driver and a helper.

During the protest, ambulance drivers also formed a formal action committee to approve their demands. The action committee leaders said that they would meet the ML-N MNAs and MPAs for the resolution of their problems.