PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: While the government kept using militancy and people’s refusal to vaccinate on religious grounds as excuses for the lack of success in immunisation campaigns, fabricated figures from incomplete anti-polio drives was one of the main factors that eventually resulted in travel restrictions.



Only 0.5% of refusals to vaccinate were based on religious grounds.



These revelations were made by Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar in the Senate on Friday, while a joint adjournment motion related to international travel restrictions on Pakistan by the World Health Organization (WHO) was being discussed.



The motion was moved by Senator Rubina Khalid.



Tarar said that the figures that flowed in from districts to provinces and then to the federal ministry put the success rate of the immunisation campaigns as high as 80 to 90 percent.



“We could not believe our eyes,” she said.



According to the minister, Balochistan remains the least accessible province in terms of immunisation, with just 16% population immunised, followed by Sindh with 29%. Punjab has the highest level of immunisation with 68.5 %, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is at 52.5%.



Karachi, Peshawar and Fata – particularly North Waziristan – are areas where the strain of the poliovirus is dangerous, the minister said while defending measures taken by the Punjab government for internal travel restrictions on people travelling from other provinces.



She also informed the Senate that around 1 million vaccination cards have been printed by the federal government, which will be sent to the provinces. However, local documents which are required by the provincial governments will be valid till June 1, she added.



While the opposition has mostly been at loggerheads with the government in the upper house, the leader of the opposition Senator Aitizaz Ahsan in a rare move assured the government of full support in any steps to ensure the eradication of polio.