Polio eradication woes: Provinces come down hard on IMB proposal

ISLAMABAD:

Provincial authorities have refused to accept the Independent Monitoring Board’s recommendations of handing over Pakistan’s polio eradication programme to the National Disaster Management Authority.

They expressed serious concerns over the recent report, terming it unrealistic and disconnected with ground realities during a meeting of the National Steering Committee on Polio on Wednesday.

According to a press release, Chief Minister Punjab’s Adviser on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said Pakistan was plagued with terrorism and polio workers were being target-killed across the country.

“There is no comparison of Pakistan’s situation with any other country,” he said. Commenting on the mention of NDMA in the report, Rafique stated the authority was not equipped to undertake a health campaign of this magnitude.

K-P Secretary Health Akbar Khan added that it was not NDMA’s job to conduct health campaigns. Representing Sindh, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, chairperson of Sindh’s Polio Oversight Committee, said NDMA only comes into play when there is a disaster.

The health secretary of Balochistan said he failed to understand how the idea was conceived.

Representatives of Fata expressed concern over the impression that the entire tribal area was affected by the poliovirus when in fact only four units were affected.

Representatives of AJK as well as G-B also disagreed with the IMB proposal.

Federal health secretary Ayub Shaikh informed participants that the premier had written to the army chief for designating a focal person at GHQ for providing security to polio teams in Fata.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2014.