Bill Gates in Pakistan

His foundation is critical in taking the country to the precipice of becoming polio-free for the first time in history

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is on his first trip to Pakistan, a country that he has helped immensely through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates, the founder of Microsoft and once the richest man in the world, has given over $36 billion of his own money to the foundation, which supports healthcare and anti-poverty initiatives across the globe. Gates himself and the foundation have also been among the world’s most prominent donors of Covid-19 vaccines, outdoing several wealthy countries in their support of vaccination efforts.

In Pakistan, his foundation has been critical in taking the country to the precipice of becoming polio-free for the first time in its history. Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked Gates for his “immense contribution towards polio eradication and poverty alleviation initiatives”. In fact, there are few disease experts that would disagree with the opinion that without Gates, Pakistan would still be plagued by hundreds of polio cases every year. With that in mind, it is surprising that he was ‘only’ awarded the Hilal-i-Pakistan award, Pakistan’s second-highest civilian award, instead of Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award. Surely his contributions to Pakistan are greater than other Nishan-e-Pakistan winners such as former West Indies and Peshawar Zalmi captain Darren Sammy, or several obscure foreign politicians that have been given the top award. Helping cricket return to Pakistan or improving our foreign relations is all well and good, but Gates is directly responsible for saving and improving the lives of thousands, if not millions of Pakistanis.

The rest of Gates’ visit focused on touring health facilities and receiving presentations on various health initiatives, including a visit to NCOC, where he was also given a rundown on Covid- related aspects. Gates reportedly appreciated Pakistan’s relative success at controlling the virus despite limited resources. As for eliminating polio from the world, Gates noted that while Pakistan appeared on track to accomplish its part, the broader objective is interlinked between Afghanistan and Pakistan — the two countries that account for all five global cases detected last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2022.

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