What is required is ‘focus on real issues & hurdles’ preventing children everywhere from receiving polio vaccinations.
KARACHI: This is with reference to polio eradication in Pakistan and the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell. Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Programme has been a sad tale since 2011, when Pakistan reported the highest number of polio cases internationally. The enhanced functioning of the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell made the accomplishing of the goal of polio eradication look ‘possible’ in 2012. The institution steered the programme in such a way that a steep 71 per cent reduction in the number of polio cases was witnessed in 2012 as compared with 2011. The cell, at the same time, provided close and meaningful monitoring and accountability under the guidance of the Prime Minister’s Task Force for Polio Eradication.
At the current juncture, Pakistan is being cited as one of the sources of the international spread of polio. The global community looks at the Prime Minister’s Polio Cell as an entity to lead to the goal. It is important to mention here that the dissolution of the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell during the interim government this year, had the programme stumbling and it has not yet recovered.
In this scenario, what is required is a ‘focus on real issues and hurdles’ that are preventing children everywhere in the country from receiving polio vaccinations — a basic right. Politicising and complicating the matter will do nothing but cause further distractions among the implementers and more importantly, among the community. Well reputed newspapers must come up, join hands for this national cause and play a constructive role in expediting the march towards polio eradication.
I urge all the concerned to avoid any confusing and misleading news about national causes, like polio eradication. I hope newspapers in our country help further this aim of providing a healthy future to the children of Pakistan.
Aziz Memon
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2013.
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