KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has issued a united call to elected representatives and media organisations across the province to lead efforts to make the province polio-free as the government prepares for a major immunisation drive from Sept 21.
In two separate letters, one addressed to parliamentarians and public representatives and the second to all media houses, he said that Pakistan remained one of the last two countries in the world where wild poliovirus transmission continued, the other being Afghanistan.
The chief minister said that Pakistan reported 31 wild poliovirus cases in 2025, while four cases had been reported in 2026 so far, including one from Sindh.
He said that continued environmental detection of the virus, particularly in the Karachi Bloc, showed that the threat persisted and that any immunity gap could allow the virus to survive.
Province to launch immunisation drive from tomorrow
He added that although the province had made significant progress, continued detection of poliovirus through environmental surveillance, together with population movement across high-risk areas, underscored the need for sustained, high-quality vaccination campaigns.
The provincial government, in collaboration with the federal government and development partners, will conduct ‘Sub-National Immunization Days’ from Sept 21 to 27 across all 30 districts of Sindh, including 23 full and seven partial districts. The campaign will target about 10 million children under five, regardless of their vaccination history.
The chief minister described the drive as a critical opportunity to close remaining immunity gaps.
In his letter to elected representatives, he said that their leadership and influence were critical for success. He sought their personal support to mobilise communities and reinforce public confidence in oral polio vaccination; to engage local influencers and community leaders to address refusals and misconceptions; to support vaccination teams in reaching missed, mobile and underserved children; to promote routine immunisation alongside polio vaccination to strengthen overall child immunity; and to ensure strong local ownership so that no eligible child remains unvaccinated.
The chief minister urged lawmakers to champion the campaign in their constituencies and mobilise all available community platforms.
In his letter to media houses, the chief minister recalled his earlier request to dedicate at least the first 15 seconds of every hourly news bulletin during polio campaign days to emphasising the importance of vaccinating every child under five.
He once again requested media outlets to dedicate at least the first 15 seconds of every hourly news bulletin from Sept 21 to 27 to promoting the campaign and reinforcing the message that every child under five must receive the polio vaccine during the campaign, regardless of previous vaccination history.
The chief minister said that media platforms could play a decisive role in encouraging parents and caregivers to cooperate with frontline workers and in ensuring that every missed child is identified and vaccinated.
He added that media support would also strengthen public confidence, community participation and awareness throughout the campaign.
He said that polio anywhere remained a threat to children everywhere and that this was a shared responsibility requiring sustained leadership at every level to interrupt transmission once and for all.
The CM expressed confidence that continued partnership with elected representatives and the media would make a significant contribution to interrupting poliovirus transmission in Sindh and achieving a polio-free Pakistan.
Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2026
