PESHAWAR: Japan has donated $3.1 million to eradicate polio in Pakistan and ensure millions of children remain safe from the crippling disease, the Pakistan Polio Programme said on Wednesday, as Islamabad desperately looks to grapple with an alarming surge in cases of the infection this year. 
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The country has so far reported 59 cases of the infection this year. 
The nation’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
“Today, the Government of Japan reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to Pakistan’s polio eradication efforts by supporting the program with a generous donation of $3.1 million,” the Pakistan Polio Programme said in a press release. 
“This funding will ensure millions of children are protected from this crippling disease in 2025, leading us closer to a polio-free Pakistan.”
Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Ayesha Farooq expressed her gratitude to the Japanese government and highlighted the decades-long partnership between both nations in the “critical fight.”
“This generous grant reflects not only financial support but also the profound bond between our nations, rooted in a shared commitment to health equity and safeguarding of future generations,” she said.
“A heartfelt thanks to the Government and people of Japan, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), and UNICEF for their enduring commitment to this life-saving cause. Together, we will achieve our goal of ensuring no child is left behind.”
Charge d’ Affairs ad interim of Japan Takano Shuichi, JICA Chief Representative Miyata Naoaki, UNICEF representative in Pakistan Abdullah Fadil and other officials from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and Pakistan Polio Program team were in attendance during the grant ceremony, the statement added.
Of the 59 cases reported in 2024, 26 are from Balochistan province, 16 from KP, 15 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad, the federal capital.
Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis, particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. 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.

ISLAMABAD: Twelve-hour-long bus rides, multiple check posts, interrogations and bills piling on were how many of nearly 600 Pakistanis evacuated from Syria this week described their fear-filled journey of leaving the war-torn nation by road through neighboring Lebanon. 
More than 1,300 Pakistanis have been stranded in Syria since last week when opposition forces seized the capital of Damascus unopposed following a lightning advance that sent President Bashar Assad fleeing to Russia on Sunday.
Pakistan’s mission in Damascus told Arab News on Wednesday 585 Pakistani nationals had been safely evacuated from Syria and were in Beirut. Efforts to transport another batch of 150 people had been hindered, the official said, due to “continuous bombing by Israeli forces.” Soon after the overthrow of Assad on Sunday ended 54 years of rule by his family, Israeli troops moved into the demilitarized zone set up after the 1973 Middle East war, saying the incursion was a temporary measure to ensure border security. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said a wave of air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles.
With major Syrian airports shut, the evacuations came after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged Lebanese PM Najib Mikati on Monday to “personally” assist in getting Pakistanis, including pilgrims, out of Syria by land routes through the border with Lebanon. 
“It took us over 12 hours to reach the Syria-Lebanon border, a distance that should have been just two hours,” Ilyas Naqvi, a Pakistani expatriate from Islamabad who has been living and working in Syria along with his family since 2000, told Arab News in a telephone interview. 

“At every checkpoint, we were searched and questioned by different groups, and with each stop we feared for our lives, not knowing if we would make it through.”
Naqvi appealed to the Pakistani government to make arrangements for the immediate return of Pakistanis, saying they were facing “severe financial hardships.”
“I arranged my own transport because it was unsafe to stay in Syria,” he explained. “A coaster that normally costs $10 per person to the Lebanon border charged $200 per head for my family of four, leaving us with very limited funds left.”
Abeel Hassan, who hails from Pakistan’s northwestern Parachinar city and had traveled to Sayyidah Zaynab town in Syria for a religious pilgrimage, also described an arduous journey to the border. 
“We heard continuous gunfire along the way, which kept all of us in constant fear,” Hassan said. 
However, he praised the Pakistani embassies in Syria and Lebanon for ensuring a safe evacuation and swiftly arranging visas at the Lebanon border.
“Our safe travel wouldn’t have been possible without the embassy officials who accompanied us and negotiated with the armed Syrians at various checkpoints to ensure our safe passage,” Hassan added.
The journey to the Lebanon border took his family six hours, he said, and they received visas at the border without having to pay a fee due to the assistance of the Pakistani mission in Lebanon. 
Zawar Hussain from Pakistan’s Hafizabad city, who had also traveled to Syria on a religious pilgrimage, said all pilgrims had paid in advance for the journey due to which they had brought limited funds on the journey. The ordeal in Syria left them in financial difficulty, making it hard even to afford food in Beirut.
“Due to the emergency situation, everything is highly overpriced here,” Hussain told Arab News. “We paid $80 for food for five people just yesterday [Tuesday].”
While wealthy pilgrims have already returned home by buying their own plane tickers onwards from Beirut, the majority lacked such funds, he added:
“We request the government to arrange charter or commercial flights for us, as we do not have the funds to purchase air tickets, which cost over $1,100.”
Ali Hassan, another pilgrim from Pakistan’s eastern city of Sargodha, said hotels at Sayyidah Zaynab — home to the Sayyida Zaynab Mosque which is believed to house the grave of Zaynab bint Ali, the granddaughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (pbuh) — had doubled their charges following the regime change, leaving pilgrims financially drained.
“Now, we don’t have enough money to buy water bottles for our family of five, as a bottle of water here in Beirut costs one dollar,” Hassan said. 
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Lebanon Salman Athar said despite the small size of the Beirut mission, the embassy was doing “everything possible” to assist Pakistani nationals.
“We have arranged visas for them without any fee and provided the best hotels and food,” Athar told Arab News, adding that the mission was in continuous contact with evacuees and the Lebanese government. 
“The foreign ministry is also working with the government to arrange a chartered flight from Beirut to bring them home,” he added, “and once it is finalized, they will be repatriated.”