LAHORE: At least 11,000 health care workers of Pakistan’s anti-polio campaign, who were also mobilized to fight the coronavirus, have lost their jobs since June due to the restructuring and funding cuts of the anti-polio program, Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, coordinator for the country’s National Emergency Operation Center for polio eradication, told Arab News on Tuesday.
Majority of those laid off are women who were performing their duties in the provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The two federating units have also witnessed maximum number of polio cases this year and host the “core reservoirs” of the polio virus, Safdar added.
So far, Pakistan has reported 64 poliovirus cases this year, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recording the highest number (22) followed by Sindh (21).
The decision to reduce the polio staff was made late last year, he continued. During a review in Islamabad, attended by the former special assistant to prime minister on health, Dr. Zafar Mirza, it was decided to change the approach of the campaign and the working modalities of the on-ground teams.
Earlier, health care workers would be employed for the entire month and paid up to Rs. 25,000.
“The nature of employment is now changed,” Safdar explained. Under new rules, lady health care workers are only hired for 10 days in parts of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and paid a daily amount, rather than for the whole month.
In a letter, dated April 23, seen by Arab News, the Emergency Operations Center for the polio eradication program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa instructed government authorities to scale down the community-based vaccination strategy in the province, “keeping in view funding constraints and challenges.”
“Consequently, funding has not been secured for these Union Councils [administrative units] beyond May 30,” the letter added.
Safdar admitted finances were among the reasons for job losses. “Overall, donor attention was diverted because of the coronavirus,” he explained. “But we tried to negotiate with them to ensure that our planned campaigns were not affected.”
Pakistan recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus on February 26. As the caseload increased, door-to-door polio immunization campaigns were suspended in March, only to resume on a smaller scale in July.
According to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program, the country will launch a sub-national polio eradication campaign this week to vaccinate 34 million children under the age of five in 130 districts.
According to the trade union, the Polio Worker Action Committee, the government has sacked 13,000 workers: 11,000 of them are from Sindh and over 2,000 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A polio coordinator working in KP, however, gave a more precise figure, saying 1,992 staff members were laid off in the province.
Farzana Arshad, 45, remained part of the anti-polio campaigns in Peshawar since 2016. On May 1, she was told through a text message that her services were no longer required.
Her monthly earning of Rs. 24,500 ended abruptly, and she is unsure how to pay for the education of her three children. “They took away our job during the pandemic,” she told Arab News over the phone from her home in Peshawar.
Recently, she was contacted again and asked to rejoin the program, but she was told that her contract would only be for 10 days, implying that she would earn less than half of her previous salary.
“In the last four years, I was threatened, followed home by people on motorcycles, but I kept working,” she said. “I am poor. I have to work to support my family.”
Arshad and other community health care workers like her were also diverted in March to help track down contacts of COVID-19 cases in different parts of the country.
Shabana, a single mother of one in Karachi, was also sacked in May. She received the message from the program during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, only a few days short of Eid Al-Fitr, making her bitterly cry. Remembering that moment, the 28-year-old told Arab News that her job was her only source of income.
“The whole country told us we were heroes for fighting coronavirus and polio together,” she said over the phone. “Is this how you treat your heroes?”
Ghausuddin, who heads the Polio Workers’ Action Committee, held a press conference in Karachi in June to highlight the plight of the fired health care workers. “Most of the women are still sitting at home and are unable to find work,” he told Arab News. “It is a tough situation for them. Many of them have been living on borrowed money since losing their job.”
Pakistan cuts 11,000 polio jobs due to restructuring, funding cuts
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Pakistan cuts 11,000 polio jobs due to restructuring, funding cuts
- Most workers who lost jobs are women from the provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Many of them are still looking for new sources of earning and are living on borrowed money
Pakistan health minister expresses concern over rising polio cases in Sindh
- Syed Mustafa Kamal asks authorities to submit detailed report on parents refusing polio vaccination for children
- Pakistan has so far reported six polio cases in first three months of 2025, with four of those reported from Sindh
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal expressed concern over the rising number of poliovirus cases being reported from Sindh, the health ministry said on Sunday, directing authorities to submit a detailed report on the number of families refusing to get their children vaccinated.
Pakistan has so far reported six polio cases in the first three months of 2025. Four out of the six cases have been reported from Sindh, as per official data.
Kamal paid a visit to the provincial Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in Karachi, Sindh’s capital, on Sunday where he sought a detailed report from authorities about parents refusing polio vaccinations for their children.
“The health minister has expressed concern over four polio cases [reported] from Sindh,” the health ministry said in a statement.
“Forty-three thousand patients in Sindh refused vaccination out of which about 42,000 are from Karachi,” Kamal was quoted as saying.
The minister was given a detailed briefing on the ongoing polio vaccination campaigns and the challenges faced by authorities.
Kamal said eliminating polio from Pakistan was a national priority, directing authorities to utilize all resources to eradicate the disease.
Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure, and multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with the completion of the routine vaccination schedule for children under five, are essential to providing immunity against the virus.
The South Asian country last year reported 74 polio cases. Pakistan has planned three major polio campaigns in the first half of 2025, with the next rounds scheduled for April and May.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.
Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
Blast kills five paramilitary soldiers, injures 11 in southwestern Pakistan
- Blast targets convoy of buses carrying paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel in Nushki district, says police official
- No group has claimed responsibility but suspicion is likely to fall on separatist Baloch Liberation Army militant outfit
QUETTA: At least five soldiers of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed and 11 others injured on Sunday morning after their convoy was targeted in a blast in southwestern Pakistan, a police official said.
The latest attack took place at the N-40 highway connecting Pakistan to neighboring Iran in Nushki district. A convoy of seven Frontier Corps buses was traveling to Taftan from the provincial capital of Quetta when it was hit by a “powerful explosion” near Rakhshani Mill, Zafar Sumalani, station house officer at the Nushki Police Station, told Arab News.
“Five security personnel were killed in the attack and 11 others injured,” Sumalani said. “The number of casualties might increase as the bus carrying dozens of FC soldiers was completely destroyed.”
The doctor said the critically injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Nushki and were later shifted to Quetta for treatment.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the blast in a statement shared by his office. The prime minister directed authorities to provide medical treatment to the injured, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“Such cowardly acts cannot shake our resolve against terrorism,” Sharif was quoted as saying by the PMO.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent ethnic Baloch separatist outfit in the province.
The blast takes place days after BLA militants stormed the Jaffar Express train on Tuesday in a remote mountain pass in Balochistan after blowing up train tracks. The militants held over 400 passengers hostage in a day-long standoff before the military rescued them.
Pakistan security forces killed 33 insurgents, rescued 354 hostages before bringing the siege to a close on Wednesday, according to army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry. A final count showed 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers had died in the attack.
Oil-and-mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. Ethnic Baloch separatists have long accused the central government of discrimination, which Islamabad denies.
The military has a huge presence in Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran. The army has long run intelligence-based operations against insurgent groups such as the BLA, who have escalated attacks in recent months on the military and nationals from longtime ally China, which is building key projects in the region, including a port at Gwadar.
More than 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of assaults in Balochistan that were claimed by the BLA.
Bomb targeting bus carrying security forces kills 5, wounds 10 in southwestern Pakistan
- Bomb attack takes place in Nushki district in militancy-wracked Balochistan province, say police
- No one has claimed responsibility but suspicion likely to fall on separatist Baloch Liberation Army
QUETTA, Pakistan: A roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying security forces in restive southwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least five officers and wounding 10 others, police said.
The attack occurred in Nushki, a district in Balochistan, said Zafar Zamanani, a local police chief. He said the blast also badly damaged another nearby bus. The dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital.
Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan, condemned the attack.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which days ago ambushed a train, took about 400 people on board hostage and killed 26 hostages before security forces launched an operation and killed all 33 attackers.
Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. Ethnic Baloch residents have long accused the central government of discrimination — a charge Islamabad denies.
Baloch Liberation Army has been demanding independence from the central government.
Iraqi Special Forces personnel complete counter-terror training course in Pakistan
- Iraqi personnel complete over two-month-long training at National Counter Terrorism Center
- Military training cooperation between two nations dates back to 1955, says state broadcaster
ISLAMABAD: Iraqi Special Forces have completed an over two-month-long training course at the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) in northwestern Pakistan, state-run media reported on Sunday, as both countries eye bolstering military and defense cooperation for regional security.
The Iraqi personnel arrived in Pakistan in December 2024 to undergo training at the NCTC located in Pabbi town in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
“Pakistani military institutions are playing an important role in providing counter-terrorism training and enhancing security cooperation in the region,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
It added that the cooperation for military training between the two states dates back to 1955, under which the Pakistan Army agreed to train Iraqi Special Forces.
The state broadcaster said that the Pakistan Army will train more Iraqi Special Forces personnel at the NCTC, describing the center as an “internationally renowned training center with modern facilities.”
Pakistan and Iraq have strengthened ties in recent years through defense cooperation, with Islamabad frequently providing training to Iraqi security forces.
In 2014, Iraq procured Super Mushak trainer aircraft from Pakistan to bolster defense relations between the two Muslim-majority nations.
One cop killed, five injured in IED blast in southwestern Pakistan
- Anti-Terrorism Force vehicle targeted in Quetta’s Western Bypass area, says police official
- Attack occurs days after separatist militants hijacked train in restive Balochistan province
QUETTA: One cop was killed while five others were injured on Saturday after an improvised explosive device (IED) blast targeted an Anti-Terrorism Force (ATF) vehicle in southwestern Pakistan, a police official said.
The attack took place at the Western Bypass area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province. An ATF patrolling vehicle was targeted with a remote-controlled IED fitted inside a cement block, the station house officer (SHO) of Brewery Road Police Station, Mehmood Kharoti, told Arab News.
The ATF operates under the Balochistan Police and is a specialized unit responsible for countering “terrorism” and organized crime.
“One ATF [cop] Dilbar Khan was killed on the spot and five others were injured in the attack,” Kharoti said.
The police officer said the injured were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“According to the Bomb Disposal report, two kilograms of explosives were used in the attack,” he added.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent ethnic Baloch separatist outfit operating in the province.
The blast takes place days after BLA militants stormed the Jaffar Express train on Tuesday in a remote mountain pass in Balochistan after blowing up train tracks. The militants held over 400 passengers hostage in a day-long standoff before the military rescued them.
Pakistan security forces killed 33 insurgents, rescued 354 hostages and brought the siege to a close on Wednesday, according to army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry. A final count showed 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers had died in the attack.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s biggest in terms of landmass, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency, with separatist groups accusing the government of exploiting the province’s natural resources while leaving its people in poverty.
Government officials deny the allegation and say they are developing the province through multibillion-dollar projects, including those backed by China.
