EDITORIAL: With the total number of reported polio cases this year jumping to 49, Pakistan now holds the dubious distinction of not just being one of only two countries left with the virus — the other being war-torn Afghanistan — but also the one with the highest number of confirmed wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in 2024.
This is a severe indictment of the government, always too occupied with political and judicial intrigues and tinkering with the constitution for petty gains to give the country’s real problems the time, attention, and resources they demand and deserve.
It is also an utter betrayal of future generations. Already, according to World Bank figures, more than half of the country’s children are born stunted. A big majority are also malnourished in their early years, putting them at a great disadvantage, both physically and mentally, right at the start of their lives. Now there’s the constantly growing threat of polio as well; something almost all the world overcame a long time ago. Yet here we are, with no light at the end of this particular tunnel.
The main reason is the state’s abject failure in erecting and overarching narrative to counter years of brainwashing by the extreme right that got most people, especially around the Afghan border, to believe that the polio vaccination drive was a cover to make future generations infertile and cut down the world’s Muslim population. This narrative was fuelled and leveraged by extremist militant organisations who declared polio workers fair game in their war against the state. That is why news reports of volunteer polio workers getting gunned down, along with security guards deployed to protect them, have become so common.
As so often suggested in this space, the government must waste no more time in getting its act together. It must gather politicians, teachers and especially religious scholars on one platform and declare unequivocally that vaccinations are a matter of life and death for this country’s children, and they have nothing at all to do with religion. It must also restore its writ by hunting down and punishing everybody involved in the misinformation and assassination campaigns around polio vaccination campaigns.
It beggars belief that this matter has been allowed to get this bad. Afghanistan has been drowned in war and suffering for more than four consecutive decades. It has no infrastructure left to speak of, so it’s no surprise that it is struggling with viruses that the rest of the world has already defeated. But for Pakistan, a nuclear power, to suffer a similar fate is unforgivable. It shows how deeply out of touch with ground reality its ruling classes have become, and how little they really care for the most compromised sections of society.
One polio case should suffice to jolt any government into very urgent action. Yet even a constantly rising number, year after year, has failed to grab the attention of Pakistan’s leaders and policymakers. This is a shame, especially since most cases come from the very fringes of society, border areas filled with marginalised people whose voice never reaches the centre. That makes it a collective failure of all institutions – government, media, civil society, etc.
Already tried and failed methods are not going to deliver any results. The government, therefore, must revise its strategy, beginning with a comprehensive narrative to blunt all the brainwashing. It must pull its socks up. Our governance system can be condemned for its culture of complacency. This near-criminal complacency must end immediately. The government must eradicate this scourge, and the sooner the better.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024