Way forward on polio

RAWALPINDI: This is with reference to Raza Rumi’s article titled, “Pakistan’s polio crisis”. Political stalwarts are appointed on high posts in the Extended Programme on Immunization (EPI) as these posts grant lucrative monetary and other packages from international donors. Some of the EPI officials later get jobs in UN organisation such as the Unicef and the WHO. The example Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where a diehard doctor leads the EPI and is more committed to his party than the profession is a case in point. How can a country, where political considerations are dearer than the health of those suffering, rid itself of polio?

Ali Khan

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2012.