ISLAMABAD: Among the participants, there is a 23-year-old polio-crippled woman from Swat, who has been listening to the speeches of the PTI and the PAT chiefs at the sit-ins for about a month.

While the others continued pushing for a change and revolution, Shamim Khan hopes that one day she would be able to meet PTI chairman Imran Khan and PAT chief Tahirul Qadri to seek their help for her medical treatment.

She is the only person in her family to have contracted polio at the age of four.

Shamim is living along with her parents in a rented house in the Karimabad locality of Rawalpindi. But for the last 29 days, she has been camping at the Constitution Avenue along with her father.

“Do you know why I am spending my days and nights here. I believe that the sit-ins are the last hope for me to get help for my treatment,” she told Dawn.

“I want to meet Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri with the hope that they would appeal for donations for my treatment,” Shamim said.

“I just need Rs0.5 million so that I can stand on my feet and live a normal life.”

She said her back and the upper parts of her legs were alright while the shins of the legs were affected by the crippling disease.

“The doctors operated upon the shin of my left leg which is now normal, but I am unable to move the shin of my right leg,” Shamim explained.

Akbar Khan, 60, the father of Shamim, believed that the two leaders can play a role in helping him in his daughter’s medical treatment.

“I will submit applications to both the leaders seeking their help for the medical treatment of my daughter. I am a very poor man and can’t afford her treatment,” Khan said.

“It is difficult for me to manage the monthly rent of Rs4,000 for the rented house in Rawalpindi. I am also unable to get any labour work due to my old age,” he added.

Khan said his daughter had never received the polio vaccine before her legs became paralysed at the age of four.

“I appeal to all parents to ensure that their children received polio vaccine, so that no one could become paralysed,” he said.

Pakistan has broken its 13-year-old record of polio cases with the confirmation of eight more cases recently, raising this year’s count to 202. In 2000, 199 cases were recorded.

Akbar Khan also said his son Azmat, a police official, was killed in the line of duty in 2010 in Swat. “I have not received any aid from the government so far while my son was only 23 when he was killed,” Khan said.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2014