Peshawar: Militant attacks and suspicion stemming from misinformation are hampering Pakistan’s battle to eradicate polio, but teams of dedicated volunteer health workers are determined to fight on.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the debilitating virus remains endemic, the disease mostly affecting children under five and sometimes causing lifelong paralysis.
Cases in Pakistan are on the rise, with 45 registered so far this year, up from six in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Polio can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine, but in parts of rural Pakistan health workers risk their lives to save others.
Last week seven people including five children were killed when a bomb targeted police traveling to guard vaccine workers. Days earlier two police escorts were gunned down by militants.
“When we hear that a polio vaccination team has been attacked, it deeply saddens us,” said health worker Zainab Sultan, 28, as she went door to door in Panam Dehri in northwest Pakistan
“Our responsibility now is to continue our work. Our job is to protect people from disability, to vaccinate children, and to make them healthy members of society.”
In the past firebrand clerics falsely claimed the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, forbidding it for consumption by Muslims.
A fake vaccination campaign organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Pakistan in 2011 to track Osama bin Laden compounded the mistrust.
More recently, militant groups have shifted to targeting armed police escorts in their campaigns of violence against the state.
Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks since the return of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad claiming hostile groups are now operating from there.
“In our area, nearly half of the parents were initially resistant to the polio vaccine, believing it to be a ploy by the West,” said local resident Ehsanullah, who goes by one name.
“There was a lack of awareness,” he said. “If this disease is spreading because of our reluctance, we are not just harming ourselves but the entire community.”
From previously being blamed for the mistrust of polio vaccines, some religious leaders — who wield immense authority in Pakistan — are now at the forefront of the campaign to convince parents.
“All major religious schools and scholars in Pakistan have debunked the rumors surrounding the polio vaccine,” said Imam Tayyab Qureshi.
“Those who attack polio vaccination teams have no connection to Islam or humanity,” he said in the provincial capital of Peshawar, where Panam Dehri lies on the outskirts.
For one parent in Panam Dehri, the endorsement by religious chiefs proved pivotal.
“Initially I did not vaccinate my children against polio. Despite everyone’s efforts, I refused,” said 40-year-old Zulfiqar, who uses one name.
“Later, the Imam of our mosque came to explain the importance of the polio vaccine, telling me that he personally vaccinated his own children and encouraged me to do the same,” he said.
“After that, I agreed.”
Another impediment can be that parents in impoverished areas use the government’s eagerness to vaccine as a bargaining chip, attempting to negotiate investment in water and road projects.
“There are demand-based boycotts and community boycotts that we face,” lamented Ayesha Raza, spokeswoman for the government polio eradication campaign.
“Your demands may be very justified, but don’t link it to your children’s health,” she pleads to them.
For some health workers, the battle to eradicate polio is more personal.
Hobbling door-to-door in Panam Dehri, polio survivor Ismail Shah’s paralyzed leg does not slow his mission.
“I decided in my childhood that when I grew up I would fight against the disease that disabled me,” said the 35-year-old.
Shah is among 400,000 volunteers and health workers who spent the past week patiently explaining to families that the oral innoculation — administered in two doses — is safe.
Their goal is to protect 45 million children, but it’s far from straightforward. When Shah arrived in his patch of 40,000 inhabitants there were more than 1,000 refusals.
“Now, there are only 94 reluctant parents left, and soon I will persuade them as well,” he said.
Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust
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Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust
- Cases in Pakistan are on the rise, with 45 registered so far this year, up from six in 2023 and only one in 2021
Sri Lanka launches nationwide program to become ‘cleanest country in Asia’
- ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ initiative aims to help ‘lift the nation,’ along with digitalization, poverty eradication
- New government wants to usher in ‘transformative change’ for the country in 2025, president says
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's new government has launched a nationwide project aiming to make it the cleanest country in Asia and enforce the principles of environmental justice.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake kicked off the “Clean Sri Lanka” initiative on New Year’s Day, saying it would be focused on restoring the island nation’s environmental system.
Dissanayake, during a launching ceremony at the presidential secretariat in Colombo on Wednesday, said: “This endeavor goes beyond merely cleaning up the environment.
“It aspires to restore the deeply eroded and deteriorated social and environmental fabric of our motherland. We aim to create cleanliness and rejuvenation across all sectors of society.”
He added: “Every citizen must take responsibility for fulfilling their respective duties to ensure the success of this collective vision.”
The program is one of the main priorities of his administration, alongside poverty eradication and digital transformation.
Dissanayake assumed the top job in September and further consolidated his grip on power after his National People’s Power alliance won a majority in the legislature in November.
He is leading Sri Lanka as the nation continues to reel from the 2022 economic crisis — its worst since independence in 1948.
“Our firm resolution is to usher in transformative change for our country this year,” he said. “This year marks the start of a new political culture in our country, as we lay the necessary foundations for its development.”
The “Clean Sri Lanka” program is a part of efforts that will be overseen by an 18-member task force.
When Dissanayake announced the initiative last month, he said it aimed “to make Sri Lanka the cleanest country in the Asian region.”
The “Clean Sri Lanka” official website says it aims to engage communities to keep public spaces safe and clean, streamline waste disposal across the country and ensure that its world-famous beaches are clean.
It also seeks to fight corruption, promote accessible infrastructure for people with disabilities, improve air and water quality, and reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.
“If we do not make ours a cleaner country, our roads to be safer, how can we expect to develop tourism? Unless we make our public spaces disabled-friendly, how can we get them involved in the economy,” it stated, adding that the initiative was crucial to help Sri Lanka rebuild its battered economy.
Sri Lanka’s poor waste management was under global spotlight in 2022 when several elephants — which are endangered in the country — were found dead after consuming plastic in an open landfill in the eastern village of Pallakkadu.
The nation of 22 million people generates more than 1.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually but recycles only 3 percent, compared to the world average of 7.2 percent.
NGOs in Afghanistan face closure for employing women
- New measure enforces a 2022 decree restricting women’s work at NGOs
- UN warns removing women workers will affect availability of humanitarian aid
KABUL: National and foreign nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan are facing closure for employing women following new rules enforcing a 2-year-old decree that restricted the work of female NGO staff.
In an official letter addressed to the organizations, the Taliban-run Ministry of Economy said on Dec. 29 that failure to implement the measures would mean that “all activities of the offending organization will be suspended and the work license they received from this ministry will be revoked.”
The order enforces a decree from December 2022 that barred national and international NGOs in Afghanistan from employing women. This is part of a series of curbs that, in the three years since the Taliban took power, have restricted women’s access to education, the workplace, and public spaces.
“This letter is a follow-up of the original letter from 2022 ... Some NGOs have reached an understanding with the officials at the local level to allow female employees to attend to their work in these organizations and at the community level, while others were stopped,” an official at a women-led international NGO told Arab News.
“A complete ban on female employees will adversely affect the operations of NGOs and will further marginalize the women of Afghanistan ... Donors will not fund men-only organizations. In addition, it’s difficult to work with women in the community without female staff.”
Two years after the Taliban government ordered NGOs to suspend the employment of Afghan women, it is not only the organizations’ work and the women themselves that have been affected, but also entire families.
When Wahida Zahir, a 26-year-old social worker in Kabul, had to leave her job at an NGO, her closest family members lost their main support.
“I was the only one in my family who had a job and with the ban on female work two years ago, my family lost the main source of income. My brothers are still studying and my father is ill,” she said.
“I live with stress and tension every moment of every day. We are literally living like prisoners. There’s a new restriction every other day. It is as if there is no other work that the government does.”
The UN has warned that removing women from NGO work “will directly impact the ability of the population to receive humanitarian aid,” with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights calling on the Taliban to revoke the decree.
“The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan remains dire, with more than half the population living in poverty,” it said. “NGOs play a vital role in providing critical life-saving assistance — to Afghan women, men, girls and boys.”
In the wake of the humanitarian crisis that Afghanistan has been facing for years, it needs more women engaged in social work, not less, say activists.
“The country needs more female aid workers, educators and health professionals to reach to the most vulnerable groups of the population, including women and children,” said Fazila Muruwat, an activist in the eastern Nangarhar province.
“Afghanistan is a traditional society. Communities in Afghanistan are more accepting of humanitarian and other forms of support when aid workers include women. Otherwise, it will be all men’s show and women will remain vulnerable in all aspects of their life.”
Indonesia court says vote threshold for presidential candidates not legally binding
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday said a law setting a minimum vote level before political parties could nominate a presidential candidate was not legally binding, which could potentially lead to a wider slate of nominees running in 2029.
The current law requires parties to win 20 percent of the vote, whether individually or through a coalition, at a legislative election to put forward a presidential candidate. It was challenged by a group of university students who argued it limited the rights of voters and smaller parties.
Chief Justice Suhartoyo granted the petition, saying the threshold “had no binding legal power,” but the ruling did not specify if the requirement should be abolished or lowered.
All political parties should be allowed to nominate a candidate, judge Saldi Isra said.
Rifqi Nizamy Karsayuda, the head of the parliamentary commission overseeing elections, told local media that lawmakers would take action following the ruling, calling it “final and binding.”
Indonesia’s law minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Arya Fernandes, political analyst at Center for Strategic and International Studies, welcomed the ruling as it allowed smaller parties to nominate a candidate and lessened their dependence on bigger parties.
Arya said lawmakers could still make revisions to the law that would limit the ruling’s impact as the court did not abolish the vote threshold.
Indonesia’s presidential elections are held every five years. The most recent was held last year and won convincingly by President Prabowo Subianto, who took office in October.
Thursday’s ruling comes after the same court lowered a similar threshold for regional positions such as governor and mayor to under 10 percent of the vote from 20 percent in August last year.
After parties supporting Prabowo and outgoing president Joko Widodo sought to reverse changes to the ruling, thousands took to the streets to protest against what they said was a government effort to stifle opposition.
In a separate ruling on Thursday, the court limited the use of artificial intelligence to “overly manipulate” images of election candidates, saying manipulated images “can compromise the voter’s ability to make an informed decision.”
Russian bomb attack kills one in southern Ukraine
- A Russian bomb attack on Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region has killed one person, local authorities said Thursday
KYIV: A Russian bomb attack on Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region has killed one person, local authorities said Thursday.
Moscow’s forces are trying to seize full control of the frontline region, which it claimed to have annexed in 2022, months after invading.
Russia fired 11 guided aerial bombs on the village of Stepnogorsk, just a few kilometers from the front line, late on Wednesday.
“A five-story building was destroyed. A man was killed. Rescuers removed his body from under the rubble,” Zaporizhzhia’s Ukrainian governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.
The strike comes amid an escalation in aerial attacks, including Russian drone strikes on the center of Kyiv that killed two people in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Ukraine is fearing a possible renewed Russian offensive toward the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia, around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the front line and still under Ukrainian control.
Bangladesh court again rejects bail for Hindu leader who led rallies
DHAKA: A court in southeastern Bangladesh on Thursday rejected a plea for bail by a jailed Hindu leader who led large rallies in the Muslim-majority country demanding better security for minority groups.
Krishna Das Prabhu faces charges of sedition after he led huge rallies in the southeastern city of Chattogram. Hindu groups say there have been thousands of attacks against Hindus since early August, when the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown.
Authorities did not produce Prabhu at the hearing during which Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Saiful Islam rejected the bail plea, according to Public Prosecutor Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan. Security was tight, with police and soldiers guarding the court.
Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee, a lawyer representing Prabhu, said they would appeal the decision.
The court rejected an earlier request for bail made while Prabhu did not have lawyers. Lawyers who sought to represent him at that hearing said they were threatened or intimidated, and many of them are facing charges related to the death of a Muslim lawyer when Prabhu was arrested in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, in November.
For Thursday’s hearing, 11 lawyers traveled from Dhaka, arriving and leaving with a security escort.
Hindu groups and other minority groups in Bangladesh and abroad have criticized the interim government led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus for undermining their security. Yunus and his supporters said that reports of attacks on Hindus and other groups since August have been exaggerated.
Prabhu’s arrest came as tensions spiked following reports of the desecration of the Indian flag in Bangladesh, with some burning it and others laying it on the floor for people to step on. Protesters in India responded in kind, attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.
Prabhu is a spokesman for the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatan Jagaran Jote group. He was also associated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known as the Hare Krishna movement.
