The recent wave of killing forced the international donors, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation to suspend their mass immunisation campaign against polio in Pakistan, as the spate of attacks against polio workers continued unabated on Wednesday, leaving one polio worker dead in Charsadda. The enemies of our children did not stop here, as the previous day four female workers lost their lives in Karachi while a 14 year old worker was killed in Peshawar. Following the killing of polio workers in different areas of Karachi, Sindh government suspended the on-going anti-polio campaign throughout the province.
At a time when revolutionary discoveries are being made in medical sciences to save human lives from the epidemics like HIV, Cancer, Hepatitis and other fatal diseases, Pakistan is facing immense difficulties in eradicating polio, as the government has failed to counter the motives of a specific mind-set busy in disrupting anti-polio drive across the country.
On the other hand the issue caught the headlines of international media which vehemently criticised Pakistan on failure to provide adequate security to anti-polio teams working to save the future generations. They said that government was aware of the fact that the workers were receiving threats from the terrorists, yet it failed to take preventive measures in this regard. They were of the view that insurgents have long ago dubbed polio vaccinators with suspicions, terming them as potential spies of the enemy.
Majority of the parliamentarians held the interior minister, Rehman Malik, responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, as they were of the view that the minister was doing nothing to cope the increasing incidents of violence in the country, but making tall claims every now and then.
MNA Noor Alam Khan while criticising Rehman Malik claimed that he had informed Malik about such attacks one year ago. Khan said Malik did not pay any attention to this warning and was only concerned with his personal security. Shahnaz Wazir Ali, an adviser on polio to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, was not seen in the lower house when debate on the recent killing was in progress. However, she preferred to lodge her protest in the All Parties Conference on polio held in a four star hotel of Islamabad instead of coming to the floor of the House with recommendations to counter the criminal elements involved in the killings of innocent workers.
PPP MNA Hamid Syed Kazami, while participating in the discussion drew the attention of the house towards the reservations of general public about the chemical composition of the polio vaccine. He said that communities where literacy rate is very low believe that the chemical composition is based on substances prohibited in Islam. The government must carry out laboratory test of the vaccine and then disclose it publicly.
In 80s when the children were administered vaccine through injection which provided protection against four or five main diseases, including polio. People willingly visited the hospitals or welcomed the polio teams in their houses and no single case of violence was witnessed across the country at that time. Why, this hype has been created now.
The nation at this stage is expecting some miracle which pulls out the country from the current deteriorating situation. The parliamentarians must exert pressure on the government to make the resolution passed on Wednesday effective, which could save the country from internal loss and global humiliation. Otherwise, people would be forced to believe that the parliament has become a factory or graveyard of resolutions.