20.01.2014 Polio perils
Soon all roads will lead away from Peshawar. The city has been implicated by the World Health Organisation as the ‘largest reservoir’ of endemic polio, with more than 90 percent of polio cases in the country traced back to strains of the virus found in the city. Since Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world – the others being Afghanistan and Nigeria – that face a polio endemic, that makes Peshawar one of the cities in the world in most urgent need of a public health intervention. The problem, as we are well aware of now, is that no vaccination campaign can be entirely successful when a powerful militant organisation is playing on our fears of western intentions to denounce polio vaccinations as a diabolical plot. That the TTP backs its rhetoric with murderous violence against those carrying out the vaccinations and those guarding them only makes the problem harder to solve. A full 10 percent of the children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are yet to be vaccinated while the number is much higher in the adjoining tribal areas where the TTP has even more control.
Should we continue down this losing path in the fight against polio we can expect wide-ranging repercussions. The disease travels fast, as we can already see with the migration of polio from Peshawar to other parts of the country. It has already gone as far as Syria. India, recently declared polio-free, will require travellers from Pakistan to show proof that they have been vaccinated in the last six months. That may be only the start of the likely travel bans we are to face. The world will be frustrated that a disease which can easily be eliminated through vaccinations may make a worldwide occurrence because of the propaganda and crimes of obscurants. Before they take the necessary step of preventing us from spreading the disease further, we will have to take action ourselves. Possible measures that could be taken is vaccinating children at schools, or making it a requirement for admission. Birth certificates and other forms of identification could only be issued if the child is vaccinated. Some out of the box thinking may also be needed like dropping by air polio vaccines in TTP-held areas so that they themselves can save their children. All these measures may sound coercive but eliminating polio is too urgent a need for niceties to come in the way.
Musical chairs
There is never a dearth of surprises when it comes to Pakistan cricket whether in the field or in the boardroom. But still the news of the return of Zaka Ashraf, who was removed from the post of Pakistan Cricket Board chairman by the Islamabad High Court last May, was initially met with disbelief. After all, when Ashraf was shown the door seven months ago by the IHC it seemed that his chapter in the PCB was dead and buried. At the time, the IHC had ruled that Ashraf got himself elected as PCB chairman for a four-year term with the help of a “dubious” and “polluted” election held on May 8 last year. But last Wednesday a two-member divisional bench of the same court accepted Ashraf’s intra-court appeal and restored him as PCB chief after concluding that his removal was a “violation of justice”. Ashraf, who was handpicked in 2011 by former president Asif Zardari to run the PCB, was quick to term his reinstatement as “historic” and has vowed to resume working for the betterment of Pakistan cricket.
However, Ashraf’s return is unlikely to prove as the final chapter in PCB’s legal saga. Media reports have suggested that the government will appeal against the IHC judgement in the Supreme Court. And with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is the board’s patron-in-chief, having the final say in PCB matters, it won’t be surprising if Ashraf’s second inning as chairman turns out to be a short one. Whether Ashraf will manage to complete his term or a new chairman will replace him, one thing is for sure: Pakistan cricket will remain in a state of turmoil. The uncertainty at the top is bound to affect Pakistan cricket in many ways at a time when it is fighting for something that already seems like a lost cause – the return of international action to this violence-torn country. Over the years, Pakistan has lost its status as a major player in the cricket world and it is feared that the current power struggle in the PCB will push it towards further isolation. It is bad timing, too, because currently cricket boards from India, England and Australia are openly pushing to gain absolute control of the International Cricket Council (ICC). If they succeed, cricket-playing nations like Pakistan will be relegated to the status of second-tier members. Back in the 1990s, Pakistan cricket chiefs thwarted similar moves but unfortunately they don’t seem to have the influence or calibre to do that again. At the moment, they are busy fighting for their own survival.