ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported another polio case from its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Tuesday, the country’s polio program said, taking the total tally of nationwide cases in 2024 to 50 as Islamabad struggles to contain an alarming surge in the infection. 
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. Starting from late 2018, Pakistan saw a resurgence of cases and increased spread of polio, highlighting the fragility of gains achieved in the preceding three years. Pakistan reported a total of six polio cases in 2023, up from only one in 2021. 
The regional laboratory for polio eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad confirmed the wild poliovirus type 1 in a female child from the KP’s Tank district. 
“Genetic sequencing of the virus isolated from collected samples indicates it is genetically linked to WPV1 detected in the same district in July,” the polio program said. “This is the second polio case from Tank.”
The program said Tank remains one of the polio-endemic districts of the southern KP province, reporting multiple positive environment samples in 2024 which indicated that polio remained a threat to children.
“There is no cure for polio,” the polio program stated. “Multiple doses of the polio vaccine protect children from the devastating effects of this disease.”
It advised parents to ensure timely vaccination of their children. 
This year, 24 cases have been reported from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, 13 from Sindh, 10 from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad. 
Pakistan continues to face challenges in its fight against polio, among them misinformation about vaccinations and attacks by religiously motivated militants on polio teams proving to be major impediments to immunization campaigns.
Pakistan’s chief health officer this month said an estimated 500,000 children missed polio vaccinations during a countrywide inoculation drive in November, blaming a large part of it on vaccine refusals. 
Seven people, including five children, were killed when a bomb targeted police personnel guarding vaccine workers this month.

KARACHI: Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Tuesday Pakistan’s volume of defense exports is not at par with its actual potential, as the South Asian country inaugurated the 12th edition of its premier defense expo in the southern port city of Karachi.

The International Defense Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) exhibition, Pakistan’s premier defense exp, has been held biennially since its inception under General (retired) Pervez Musharraf’s administration in 2000 and has grown into a key event for the defense sector. This year’s exhibition, running from Nov. 19-22 at the Karachi Expo Center, will host over 550 exhibitors, including 340 international defense companies, alongside more than 350 senior civil and military officials from 55 countries.

The exhibition will showcase a wide range of modern and traditional defense equipment, weapons systems and vehicles, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.

“Though Pakistan is now exporting some high-tech products to more than 60 countries, the volume of exports is not at par with its actual potential,” Asif said while addressing the exhibition.

“A crucial factor, however, has been the limited involvement of the private sector in defense production and activity.”

The defense minister said relatively less attention has been paid to academia, industry interface and involvement of research and development organizations. He said these factors have curtailed the competitiveness of certain sectors of the defense industry.

“In order to achieve this objective, I will stress upon the integration of public and private defense industry to achieve maximum results,” Asif said. “New ideas, entrepreneurship and management skills mastered by the private sector need to be co-opted with the public sector defense industry.”

Without mentioning Pakistan’s arch-rival and nuclear-armed neighbor India, Asif called for greater cooperation between regional players to make South Asia a safer place.

“We believe in meaningful dialogue on the basis of equality, not only to resolve bilateral issues but also to give chance to peace and harmony in the region,” he said.

‘PRODUCTS OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS’

Brig. Ali Adil, director of coordination for IDEAS 2024, had outlined the event’s diverse activities during a news conference over the weekend, saying it includes live demonstrations of cutting-edge defense technology, an international seminar and the IDEAS Tri-Services Karachi Show.

The event will also offer opportunities for networking through business-to-business and business-to-government engagements.

“IDEAS 2024 will bring together representatives of defense industries from around the world to showcase their latest technological innovations, while Pakistan’s defense sector, including both public and private companies, will present products of international standards,” Brig. Adil had said.

He had said this year’s event will feature a new “Startups Pavilion” designed to offer international exposure to young Pakistani entrepreneurs, adding the pavilion will showcase innovative projects and technologies.

An international seminar on “Pakistan Defense Production Potential – Challenges, Opportunities, and Way Forward” will be held on the third day of the event, with presentations from leading national and international experts.

Karachi has faced significant security challenges, including a suicide bombing near Jinnah International Airport last month that killed two Chinese engineers and injured several others. The city also grapples with high street crime rates, with over 90,000 incidents reported in 2023, causing considerable hardship for residents.

To bolster security, local authorities have already fortified the Expo Center, the venue for the exhibition, with multiple layers of containers. As per local media reports, a ban on public gatherings in the city has been imposed for seven days.