PESHAWAR: Along with Pakistani government, a JUI-F woman MNA from Mardan has held the leading United Nations agencies equally responsible for failure on polio front in the country despite efforts spanning two decades.

“It is totally wrong that the blame for travel restrictions on account of polio is being laid on Pakistan only. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and the World Health Organisation, which are communication and technical partners of the government in Pakistan’s anti-polio efforts, should also be held accountable for it,” Naeema Kishwar told Dawn on Saturday.

The MNA said only Pakistan couldn’t be blamed for failure on polio front because the two UN agencies, too, were responsible for things coming to a sorry pass.

She said she had long been requesting the government on the floor of the house to address her concerns about anti-polio campaign, but to no avail.

“Last year, the government secured a loan of $227 million from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for polio eradication on eight per cent markup. Around two-thirds of the money was given to Unicef and WHO. It’s perhaps the only instance of the UN being given money by a country,” she said, adding that she had submitted questions to the National Assembly in this respect.

Ms Kishwar said the termination of a contract of the National Research and Development Foundation, a Peshawar-based NGO, at a time when it had succeeded in doing away with refusal against anti-polio vaccination in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas was a wrong move on part of the Unicef.

She said the Unicef had engaged the NRDF in 2009 to address the growing vaccination refusal cases.

“The organisation was supposed to work with the Unicef until December 2012 under an agreement but its contract was terminated a few months earlier without citing any reason. The sudden move caused widespread resentment among around 14,000 religious leaders representing the NRDF,” she said.

The MNA said the UN agencies were bound by the law only to help the government in anti-polio fight but in Pakistan’s case, they were in the driving seat.

She said after the termination of contract, an armed campaign against vaccinators had begun and since December 2012, 32 people had lost life in polio-related violence in the province.

“Since then, the incidence of vaccination refusal has gone up,” she said.

She said she was concerned as separating religious leaders from the anti-polio campaign could complicate things.

Ms Kishwar said vaccination refusal cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata totaled 5,000-6,000 only when the Unicef parted ways the NRDF but the number had gone up to more than 50,000 in the region since then.

She said the people, who had begun vaccinating children against polio after the persuasion of religious leaders, had developed suspicion about vaccination after the NRDF contract was terminated.

When contacted, senior coordinator of the WHO for polio in Pakistan Dr Elias Durry said his organisation recognised the difficulties the anti-polio programme currently faced in the country but it was pertinent to remember that there were hundreds of thousands of innocent children, who were ‘avoidably destined to’ be paralysed.

“Reversing the fate of these children requires collective responsibility and commitment from all, including governments at different levels, implementing partners including the WHO, civil society, religious leaders, media, politicians and community leaders.

“We need to set our sights on polio-free Pakistan. The WHO has always been and will continue playing its role as technical agency in polio eradication efforts,” he said.

Regarding the IDB loan, he said it was a normal arrangement.

“These funds were utilised on behalf of the government based on transparent and clear agreement,” he said.

Communication manager at Polio Eradication Initiative of Unicef, Pakistan Shelley Thakral said, “we echo the WHO’s sentiments.”

She parried questions about the Unicef’s role on the anti-polio fight in the country.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014