ISLAMABAD: Rumours about the surveillance of 75,000 families of internally displaced persons (IDP) for the polio vaccination programme have caused concern among health workers who fear that they too are being tracked through their mobile phones.

However Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) Secretary Ayub Sheikh and Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Polio head Dr Rana Safdar denied the rumours, and said the polio vaccination programme is not using any technology to track IDPs or health department employees.

On Wednesday, a foreign newspaper carried a story stating that the polio vaccination programme was tracking mobile phones belonging to IDPs to vaccinate them. It said that the SIM cards given to IDP families for cash assistance were later used to track families and vaccinate them. The intelligence agencies were also interested in monitoring the location of IDPs.

Following the news story, a rumour spread across various health departments that the vaccination programme was tracking both IDPs and health department staff.

An official from the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) said, on the condition of anonymity, that the rumour spread quickly, and some employees changed their SIM cards and did not update their mobile numbers officially.

“If our phones are being tracked, there is a possibility that [the polio vaccination programme management] might also be wire tapping our phones, which can be dangerous for us. Not only would our private lives be disturbed, the information could be leaked to non-state actors,” the official said.

“These kinds of things are very sensitive,” he said.

“We are on the way to eradicating the polio virus, as only 41 cases have been reported in Pakistan this year compared to the 250 cases reported this time last year. That kind of rumour can damage efforts.”

“In 2012, we were close to eradicating the polio virus [in Pakistan] but the news about Dr Shakeel Afridi spoiled the efforts. Any other scandal can end the efforts regarding the polio virus,” he said.

Dr Afridi conducted a fake Hepatitis C campaign in order to help the CIA locate Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. News of the fake campaign broke in 2012, a year after bin Laden was killed.

EOC for Polio head Dr Safdar told Dawn that the polio vaccination programme is not using any device to track IDPs.

“At the start of the Zarb-e-Azb operation, we deputed vaccination teams at all the entry points to South and North Waziristan, and vaccinated everyone – irrespective of age – who passed through these points. More than 500,000 people were vaccinated,” he said.

The TTP had banned polio vaccination in North and South Waziristan from 2012 to 2014. Dr Safdar said the teams were able to vaccinate people from the area after two and a half years.

“All the IDPs reached registration centres where we vaccinated them a second time at the time of registration. Almost 80 per cent of IDPs stayed in Bannu, so about six polio vaccination campaigns were conducted in the area.”

“We don’t have the capacity to conduct surveillance through mobile phones,” he said.

NHS Secretary Ayub Sheikh also denied the rumours. He said that he was aware of the sensitivity of the issue.

“In March 2015 three people were killed when unidentified assailants fired at a polio vaccination team near an Afghan refugee camp in Mansehra city. And later, the investigation revealed that a local newspaper had published a story claiming that polio vaccination teams were involved in spying, which is why the team was attacked,” he said.

“People should ignore all the conspiracies about the polio vaccination programme,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2015