Paramedics to boycott vaccination
Polio vaccinators, carrying bag of vaccines and documents to collect data, walk through a neighbourhood in Karachi at the start of a nationwide inoculation drive. Photo: Jalal Qureshi/express
More than 2,000 health workers, administering polio and Covid vaccines in the North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, announced on Monday the boycott of the vaccination campaign because of lack of security.
A large number of health workers protested in front of the Miranshah Press Club, demanding security to the vaccinators and compensation for the dead and injured health workers in attacks on their teams.
The protesters carried placards, inscribed with slogans like ‘Protect the Polio Worker’ and ‘Announce Compensation Package for the martyrs and the injured’. They also raised slogans in favour of their demands. Earlier, the protesters blocked the Bannu-Miranshah Road.
Addressing the protesters at the press club, All Paramedics Association President Malik Jalaluddin, former president Shams Dawar and General Secretary Safdar Elahi said that the government had failed to protect the polio workers.
“Our responsibility is to administer polio vaccine and the responsibility of the government is to maintain law and order,” Malik Jalaluddin said. “Police and district administration have failed to arrest the attackers,” he added.
“It is our responsibility to vaccinate against polio and the responsibility of the government is to maintain law and order,” he continued. “If the government cannot protect the polio workers, then we will not take part in the vaccination campaigns.”
Currently, polio campaign are run by 900 paramedics and 1,700 class four employees. “Our boycott will continue until the government takes concrete steps for improvement in the law and order,” Malik Jalaluddin said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2022.