Protection of health workers
That the attacks on polio vaccination workers continued on a second consecutive day also is indicative of the most callous dereliction of duty by the Sindh and KP administrations. The TTP’s antipathy towards the anti-polio campaign has been well-known. Initially, the militants had no excuse to oppose the campaign other than the canard that through it the West was conspiring to spread sterility in the Muslim countries. Washington is to be blamed for the disastrous decision to use a child immunisation programme as cover for Dr Afridi, who was employed to spy on the house of Osama bin Laden. This made it easier for the militants to persuade the gullible among the tribesmen that the polio staff was in fact meant to spy for the US. But Karachi is no lawless Waziristan, nor are Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera for that matter. The Karachi administration was in fact already forewarned after a UN doctor was attacked in July while administering the vaccine near Sohrab Goth. If the medical staff had been provided appropriate security, the incidents may not have taken place.
The attacks will have a negative impact on the anti-polio campaign which has already been stopped in Karachi. Many field workers may not be willing to put their lives in jeopardy for a paltry fee of Rs 1,500 for a three-day polio campaign. After WHO launched its polio eradication initiative in Pakistan in 1994, the incidence of the crippling disease went down within ten years to 28 cases. With the subsequent opposition by Mullah Fazlullah and others of his ilk, it was again on the rise with the figure reaching 198 in 2011, a 22 percent increase over 2010. Almost one million Pakistani children were left out of the polio vaccination drive in October this year as unrest and flooding limited access and some parents viewed the campaign as a Western conspiracy. Pakistan is presently in the company of Afghanistan and Nigeria, the only other countries which are still polio-endemic. Like them Pakistan would be seen to be possessing a potential to spread the crippling disease to neighbouring countries like India and Iran that have been cleared of it.
The Pakistan government is being widely seen as having failed to fulfill its responsibility. In a joint reminder, the WHO and UNICEF have called on “the leaders of the affected communities and everyone concerned to do their utmost to protect health workers and create a secure environment so that we can meet the health needs of the children of Pakistan.” The UN chief Ban Ki-moon has condemned the killings and was to meet Pakistan’s UN ambassador Masood Khan on Tuesday over the issue. It is unfortunate that there was no spontaneous condemnation of the attacks by the opposition and the religious parties.
