KARACHI: With the number of polio cases in Pakistan increasing at an alarming rate, Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar on Wednesday claimed that 80 per cent of all cases reported in the country were linked to Pashtun community.
Tarar was addressing a polio meeting held in Karachi chaired by the Sindh chief secretary.
While urging concerned authorities to report accurate data in order to effectively combat the crippling disease, the health minister alleged that district health officers provide inaccurate information.
“We will have to tell the truth regarding polio otherwise how will we fight the disease,” Tarar questioned.
“The rise in the number of polio cases has given Pakistan a bad name worldwide,” she continued.
Referring to the polio immunisation campaign in Sindh, the health minister said that in some districts of the province only 29% of the campaign was completed while in others only 4% was completed.
“We have to improve our surveillance and DCOs should report to the chief secretary,” she added.
Further, while speaking at the meeting, the chief secretary claimed that the number of parents refusing to immunise their children against polio has increased.
“Forty-two per cent of all households refused to get their children immunised,” he said.
The chief secretary added that 11 districts in Sindh were declared sensitive and army will be deployed to provide security to vaccinators.
He added that more than 13.2 million children in Pakistan have been vaccinated against polio between June and September this year by the UAE government as part of a campaign set up on the directives of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
COMMENTS (12)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
In USA they use IPV vaccine for Polio and in Pakistan we use OPV vaccine for Polio,
OPV vaccine is also a source of Polio in vaccine receiver this is the reason USA stoped using OPV vaccine. reference : cdc . gov (section Polio Disease – Questions and Answers.)
She made a fact-based observation; there's nothing racist about that. It's not like she went on to say "Pashtun's tend to be backward" or anything like that. Fact is, there are variations and patterns across communities in immunization, and recognizing them helps to better target health interventions for greater effectiveness.
@Pakistani So Mr Pakistani you just assumed out of Bias that assumed comment from Irfan is infact from a Punjabi.?. It is a blatant racism in its own regard. How come you know that the person is not from Sindh, Balochistan, Kashmir or from Northern non Pushtun regions and assumed a Punjabi only? Let me tell you Punjabis welcome everybody with open heart but in return we always get hatred and nothing else. Also keep in mind we are hard working people and that is why we are progressing. We are paying our bills and taxes on our hard earned money and not looting everyone. Punjabis are a scapegoat for other ethnicities to hide their inefficiencies and problems. if still you think Punjabis are looting then ok stop supply of gas just like PPP did but still we will survive as we have enough entrepreneurship skills to excel in any field.
@Lahoriya: They just analyzed the statistics and made it public. It is not racism at all. She never disparaged any ethnicity , rather she just pointed out that incidence of Polio is more prevalent in one ethnicity than any other. How come it is racist?. Have your ever studied medicine or even basic science?. Do you know some diseases are more common in one group of people than others. Fore example Some forms of cancer have more incidence in a particular race than any other. So if someone will do the analysis and will come to the conclusion then he will become a racist?. If someone will state that TB ( Tuber-culosis) have more occurence among the population of Punjab then it is a fact. Similarly Polio among the Pushtun population is a fact as well. Just study any American Medical Journal and many diseases are discussed with respect to Black, White, Latinos, Maxicans, Indians etc. It is the first way to identify the problem rather than any racism.
What an idiotic comment !
We Pakistanis complain of racism in foreign countries when we are the most racist lot; we cannot even tolerate our own country men. The sad part is that in Pakistan, racism is not confined to the illiterates; even the literates from places like Karachi, which has seen relatively recent demographic change, are severely racist.
The racist nature of this comment by the minister as well as the overt nature of racism present in some comments would cause mass alarm and possible action by the state in any semi-literate, medium-developed country in the world. Just tells us how mentally backward we are; shocked.
@Abdullah: How come localizing the problem equates to targetting someone.? This is a fact that many Pushtun families dont allow their children to immunize. Even in Punjab i have met many Pushtun families especially Wazir tribes who dont allow their children to take any form of vaccination. There is no politics involved in it but unfortunately some over-sensitive crowd who dont want to open their eyes and live in their world of fake dignity dont accept it. Kindly accept that Pakistan is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country and some practices are more prevalent in one culture than the other. For example you will find more intermarriage among Punjabis, Urdu speakers and Kashmiris but other ethnic groups especially Pushtuns for 99 percent of the time dont marry outside of their ethnicity. Accept the Reality and try to find a solution rather than chanting bias and racism in every nook and corner.
I think the percentage is even higher .Man,pushtuns live in their own world.
Yes Mrs. Health Minister, they are Pushtuns not non-Pakistanis that you are targeting them and playing politics politics.