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Pakistani doctors say running out of vaccines, warn of fourth coronavirus wave

People stand in a queue to register to receive a dose of the Covid-19 coronavirus Sinopharm vaccine at a vaccination center in Rawalpindi on June 11, 2021. (AFP/File)
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Updated 20 June 2021
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Pakistani doctors say running out of vaccines, warn of fourth coronavirus wave

  • Pakistan Medical Association calls for strict implementation of health guidelines as more contagious COVID-19 variants are present in the country
  • Pakistan's health chief says 6.5 million vaccine doses expected to arrive this month, pressure on vaccine distribution to ease next week
Updated 20 June 2021
SUMEERA RIAZ

LAHORE: Vaccination centers are running out of COVID-19 shots, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) secretary general Dr. Qaisar Sajjad said on Saturday, a day after the PMA warned of a looming fourth wave of the pandemic.

In a press release issued on Friday evening, the PMA said that as the government is reopening all sectors over a steady decline in coronavirus cases, without strict implementation of health guidelines, Pakistan "can face fourth wave" of the pandemic, as the highly contagious virus variants first reported in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and India are already present in the country.

It advised all to get vaccinated as soon as possible, as vaccination is "the most protective shield against COVID-19," and requested the government to ensure uninterrupted supplies of vaccine doses.

“Vaccination centers are running short of vaccines and the people are being asked to go back," Dr. Sajjad told Arab News. "The situation is really very bad in terms of vaccine supply. The doctors have stopped vaccination drive and we are receiving complaints from all over the country, especially from various districts of Punjab, that there is no vaccine available."

He added that the call to strictly follow coronavirus restrictions was also related to the presence of the Delta variant of COVID-19, first identified in India, which is more contagious and resistant to vaccines compared with other forms of COVID-19.

Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmeen Rashid has also confirmed the shortage of COVID-19 shots in her province.

"Arrival of Chinese vaccine was due on June 10, but due to some technical issues it was delayed and would arrive on June 20," she told Arab News. "We are running short of AstraZeneca vaccine and people have been asked to come after a week."

The federal government has meanwhile said that it expects 6.5 million vaccine doses to arrive in Pakistan this month.

"Any pressure in the system & local/distribution issues will be eased by Mon/Tue, inshallah," Pakistan's health chief, Dr. Faisal Sultan, said in a series of tweets on Saturday.

 

 

At the current vaccination pace, however, reaching herd immunity in the country may take years.

"COVID-19 is a phenomenon that will persist until 80 percent of population is vaccinated," Dr. Javed Akram, vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences in Lahore, told Arab News.

"The whole process will take two, three years or maybe more than that."

Topics: coronavirus pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccines

Pakistan police officer killed as polio vaccination drive starts — police

Updated 9 sec ago
AFP
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Pakistan police officer killed as polio vaccination drive starts — police

  • Two motorcycle riders opened fire on police officer in northwestern Jamrud town, say police
  • Pakistan launched this year’s first nationwide immunization effort today after 73 cases in 2024 
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A Pakistan police officer traveling to guard polio vaccinators was shot dead Monday, police said, on the first day of a nationwide immunization effort after a year of rising cases.

The officer was traveling to guard polio vaccinators in the area of Jamrud town in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when he was killed, local police official Zarmat Khan told AFP.

“Two motorcycle riders opened fire on him,” he said. “The constable died instantly at the scene.”

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries where polio is endemic and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts.

Pakistan recorded at least 73 polio infections last year compared to six in 2023. The vaccination campaign which started on Monday is the first of the year and is due to last a week.

“Despite the incident, the polio vaccination drive in the area remains ongoing,” Khan said.

Abdul Hameed Afridi, another senior police official in the area, also confirmed details of the attack and said officers have “launched an investigation.”

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, however Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — which neighbors Afghanistan — is a hive of militant activity.

The Pakistani Taliban are the most active group in the area.

Polio can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine, but scores of vaccination workers and their escorts have been killed over the years.

In the past, clerics falsely claimed that the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, declaring it forbidden for Muslims.

In more recent years the attacks have focused on vulnerable police escorts accompanying the vaccinators as they go door-to-door.

Last year, dozens of Pakistani policemen who accompany medical teams on campaigns went on strike after a string of militant attacks targeting them.

Pakistan has witnessed rising militant attacks since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan.

More than 1,600 people were killed in attacks in 2024 — the deadliest year in almost a decade — according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.

Islamabad accuses Kabul’s new rulers of failing to rout militants organizing on Afghan soil, a charge the Taliban government routinely denies.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday last year’s polio eradication efforts faced “a major setback.”

“We must eradicate polio from Pakistan at any cost,” he said as he launched the new vaccination drive.

Topics: Polio Pakistan Peshawar

Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges

Updated 6 min 22 sec ago
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Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges

  • Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges
  • Lawyers reject president’s move, say transfer “unfair” and affects seniority of other Islamabad High Court judges 
Updated 6 min 22 sec ago
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: Lawyers associated with the capital’s bar associations and councils have gone on strike today, Monday, to protest against the president’s move to transfer three judges from different high courts to the Islamabad High Court (IHC). 

President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday approved the transfers of Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar from the Lahore High Court, the Sindh High Court’s Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro and Balochistan High Court’s Justice Muhammad Asif to the IHC, invoking anger from the capital city’s district and high court bar associations. 

Zardari went ahead with the transfers despite opposition from five of 10 IHC judges. In a letter addressed to the chief justices of the Supreme Court and high courts on Friday, the judges said the decision was unfair to the existing senior judges of the IHC.

They also cited speculation and news reports that the government wanted to appoint Justice Dogar as the IHC’s chief justice, saying that it would be a “fraud on the constitution.”

“This decision is unfair to the judges serving in the IHC as it clearly affects their seniority,” Asad Manzoor Butt, president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, told Arab News. 

Butt supported the Islamabad High Court Bar Association’s call for notification of the judges’ transfer to be canceled. 

“We will travel to Islamabad to consult with the Bar leadership and extend our support to them,” he said. 

Pakistan’s constitution empowers the president to transfer a judge from one high court to another after the concerned judge consents to the decision. The president can approve the transfer after consulting the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief justice of both high courts.

The Islamabad Bar Council (IBC) said on Sunday that the capital city’s lawyer bodies will pursue all legal and constitutional avenues to challenge the move and safeguard the “judicial independence of Islamabad.”

It said an All-Pakistan Lawyers’ Convention will be held under the IBC on Monday to formulate a future strategy to challenge the transfers. 

Topics: Pakistan lawyers

Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers

Updated 4 min 21 sec ago
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Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers

  • Major militant attack in southwestern Kalat district killed 18 Pakistani security forces on Saturday
  • Shehbaz Sharif to meet injured soldiers, discuss law and order situation with provincial leadership
Updated 4 min 21 sec ago
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has arrived in the provincial capital of Quetta on a day-long visit where he will be briefed about the law and order situation in southwestern Balochistan, his office said on Monday, days after a militant attack killed 18 soldiers in the province.

The Pakistan army said on Saturday 18 security forces had been killed while trying to thwart an “act of terrorism” in the insurgency-plagued Balochistan province, adding that 23 militants were killed in subsequent clearance operations. 

The army said the attack took place in Kalat district’s Mangochar town on the night between Friday and Saturday when militants attempted to establish roadblocks in the area. The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the most prominent separatist groups operating in the southwestern province, claimed responsibility for the attack. 

“Governor Balochistan Sheikh Jafar Khan Mandokhel and Chief Minister Balochistan Sarfraz Bugti received Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif upon his arrival at Quetta,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. 

It said Sharif will meet security forces personnel who were injured while battling militants in Kalat last week.

“The prime minister will also meet the provincial leadership in Quetta and will be briefed on law and order,” the statement added. 

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and Power Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari are accompanying Sharif, the PMO said. 

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by landmass and rich in mineral resources, has long faced a low-level insurgency led by separatist groups like the BLA, who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources while neglecting the local population.

Pakistani governments have for decades denied these allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.

The BLA has emerged as a significant security threat in recent months, carrying out major attacks in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan and targeting security forces, ethnic Punjabis they consider outsiders in Balochistan, as well as Chinese interests and nationals working on investment projects.

Over 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of attacks in Balochistan claimed by the BLA. Last month, dozens of fighters of the separatist outfit gained control of a small town in Khuzdar for hours.

They snatched weapons and vehicles from the local Levies paramilitary force and set the Levies station on fire.

Violence by Baloch separatist factions, primarily the BLA, killed about 300 people last year, according to official statistics, marking an escalation in the decades-long conflict.

Topics: Pakistan Quetta

Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion

Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion

  • Governors of Pakistan’s Punjab and Iran’s Razavi Khorasan provinces attend signing of MoU in Lahore
  • Pakistan, Iran have often been at odds over militancy and instability along shared, porous border 
Updated 03 February 2025
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s and Iran’s chambers of commerce have signed an agreement aimed at increasing exports between the two countries to $10 billion, state-run media reported on Monday, as the two sides eye increasing trade to move past strained ties. 

The development takes place after Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of general staff of Iran’s armed forces, visited Pakistan last month to hold talks with the country’s civil and military leadership on border management, economic cooperation and regional issues. 

Pakistan and Iran have often been at odds over instability along their shared, porous border and routinely trade blame for not rooting out militancy. Tensions surged in January last year when Pakistan and Iran exchanged airstrikes, with both claiming to target alleged militant hideouts in each other’s territory.

“A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Mashhad Chamber of Commerce and Industries in Lahore,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. 

“The purpose of the MoU is to take bilateral volume of exports to ten billion dollars between the two countries,” the statement said. 

It said the governor of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, Sardar Saleem Haider Khan and the governor general of Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province, Gholam Hossein Mozaffari, both attended the signing ceremony.

Khan said his Iranian counterpart expressed “great interest” in Pakistani products, stressing that both countries should focus on expanding trade relations.

“He said the Iranian Governor has assured to consider reducing tourist and business visa fees and improving facilities for easier travel and trade,” the report said. 

Later, both governors inaugurated a one-day shopping festival organized by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Expo Center Lahore.

Iran’s late president Ebrahim Raisi toured Pakistan in April 2024 as both countries sought to mend ties after unprecedented tit-for-tat military strikes. 

During Raisi’s three-day visit, the two governments signed MoUs and agreements covering different fields including trade, science and technology, agriculture, health, culture and judicial matters. 

Raisi had said that the volume of trade between the two countries “is not acceptable at all” and that they should enhance bilateral trade to $10 billion. 

Topics: Pakistan Iran Ties

Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children

Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children

  • Around 400,000 polio vaccinators will administer vaccines door-to-door to children, says official 
  • Pakistan has reported only one case this year but last year, it reported an alarming 73 cases of disease
Updated 03 February 2025
Shahjahan Khurram

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally kicked off its first anti-polio drive of 2025 today, Monday, to vaccinate over 45 million children under the age of five, the health ministry said as the country hopes to stem the spread of the disease. 

The Pakistan polio program conducts multiple mass vaccination drives in a year, and this year’s first anti-polio vaccination campaign is expected to continue till Feb. 9. Pakistan has assembled teams of around 400,000 polio workers to go door-to-door countrywide to vaccinate children below five years of age, Coordinator for Health Dr. Mukhtar Bharath said. 

Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five are essential to provide children high immunity against the disease.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched Pakistan’s first anti-polio drive of 2025 during an event in Islamabad on Sunday, administering polio drops to children during the ceremony. 

“During the polio campaign, more than 45 million children across the country will be administered polio drops,” the Ministry of Health’s spokesperson said. 

Dr. Bharath called on parents to support polio vaccinators and ensure their children received the vaccines. 

“It is the national and moral responsibility of parents to vaccinate all children under the age of five,” he said. 

Pakistan has reported only one polio case this year. However, last year the South Asian country reported 73 cases with Balochistan province reporting 27, the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh reporting 22 case each, and Pakistan’s capital city and eastern Punjab province each reporting one case of the disease throughout the year. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the disease is endemic. 

Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.

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.
 

Topics: Pakistan Polio

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