Call off anti-polio ban, WHO appeals to militants

Ex-Saudi health minister lauds groups for assisting Khyber Agency drive.

PESHAWAR: A top official of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has made an impassioned appeal to militant groups to allow anti-polio vaccination in their areas amid the resurgence of polio in the country.

Saudi Arabia’s former health minister and special adviser to the director general of WHO’s polio eradication programme Dr Hussein al Gezairy, who is on a visit to Pakistan, has asked militant groups in Pakistan to call off the ban on the anti-polio drive so that children could be administered drops in those areas.

“I directly appeal to Hafiz Gul Bhadur in North Waziristan, Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan, and Mangal Bagh and Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber Agency, to allow polio teams in their areas,” he said.

Talking to a selected group of journalists, Dr al Gezairy said that if the Taliban in Afghanistan could halt their operations during anti-polio campaigns then the same could be done in Pakistan.

The WHO official said that some groups helped the government in the Khyber Agency and thousands of children were successfully administered the anti-polio drops — an effort that deserves praise.

He expressed gratitude to the leaders of Ansarul Islam and Amr Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkir militant groups who backed the government’s initiative to help reach those areas which had remained inaccessible for years.

The former health minister of Saudi Arabia said that militants groups were using the ban on entry of polio teams in their respective areas and were linking it with demands to end US drone strikes. According to him, these tactics were being employed for political purposes.

“Linking polio vaccination to other demands by these specific groups is not in the favour of their children — if any child contracts the virus he will be paralysed for life.”

Highlighting the seriousness of tracing and eliminating the virus, he said that in 1985 Pakistan was responsible for a quarter of all polio cases in the world.

Revealing plans to eradicate the polio virus from the country, Dr al Gezairy said that currently the WHO was directly funding polio vaccinators in selected areas of the country and in the near future the Islamic Development Bank will also sanction a huge fund for the same purpose.

Immunisation teams had reached the Tirah Valley and Bara sub-division for the first time after 2009 and were immunised with vaccines of polio, measles and Pentavalent to 3,264 children through the help of the Ansarul Islam group.

On June 16, 2012 Hafiz Gul Bahadur imposed a ban on polio vaccination in the North Waziristan Agency, alleging that these campaigns were carried out for the US and not a single child would be vaccinated unless the drone strikes stop. A similar ban was imposed by Maulvi Nazir in the South Waziristan Agency on June 26.

Around 160,000 children have missed the national immunisation days on June 16 to 18, despite repeated contacts between these warlords and the political administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2012.