PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is yet to replace the Lakki Marwat district health officer despite the directives to this effect issued at a June 24 meeting of the Provincial Task Force for Polio Eradication (PTF) chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.

The meeting, which was attended by the chief secretary, prime minister’s focal person on polio eradication, commissioner Bannu and others, had expressed serious concerns over the performance of DHOs of Bannu and Lakki Marwat, and decided to replace the both.

The meeting was told that polio eradication was a national priority initiative in which political leadership, all provincial departments and technical partners played important role.

During the discussions, the commissioner Bannu had stated that abstaining from use of force against individual refusals was a good suggestion, but at the same time, the district administrations should not refrain from taking any coercive measures against anti-state elements and miscreants who were constantly involved in sabotaging the national cause.

Replacement of Lakki and Bannu health officers was ordered over poor polio coverage

Besides other decisions, the meeting decided to immediately post out DHOs Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts and replace them with experienced and competent officers.

It was noted that the emergence of polio cases in Bannu and North Waziristan was source of particular concern for the government.

The chief minister had directed that all relevant departments and stakeholders should sit together and find solutions to issues of coordination and the programme implementation.

Meanwhile, sources said that Bannu division had recorded 23 polio cases of the total 33 recorded so far across the province this year.

Bannu district has recorded 16 polio cases, North Waziristan six and Lakki Marwat one, of the total 41 cases recorded countrywide. All the cases detected in Bannu district had zero vaccination.

Prime minister’s focal person on polio eradication Babar bin Atta had also recommended to Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on June 12 to replace the health officers after an inquiry by the Bannu commissioner found that flawed district health system was to be blamed for polio cases in the region.

The government has replaced DHO Bannu, but Lakki Marwat’s health officer is yet to be posted out.

The DHO Lakki Marwat was on leave for five months, which had affected polio vaccination, while the one holding the acting charge was hampering the accountability of those related to vaccination and helping poor performers by granting them leaves.

The sources told Dawn that fake finger markings was a big challenge in Bannu where parents had got markers to show to the vaccinators that their children had already been vaccinated.

The people don’t trust vaccination which results in emergence of cases rapidly, they added.

According to them, the health officials were surprised that how the markers provided by the WHO reached the parents.

The only reason of polio cases was community mistrust but the officials concerned at the district level misled the government with data-based fake finger markings.

Bannu, Lakki Marwat and North Waziristan had shown only one per cent missed children in the past few months when the district administrations used punitive measures to curb refusal cases, but when the government ordered that no case be registered against refusing parents, the missed children number swelled to 8 per cent.

In Bannu, it went up from 900 to 18,000 children, in North Waziristan from 1,000 to 9,000 children and in Lakki Marwat from 1,100 to 15,000 children.

The authorities are perturbed over the situation in Bannu division where it lacks statistics about refusals which means they are bereft of actual number of refusal cases due to fake finger markings.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2019