ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Pakistani capital is leading in the country in administering COVID-19 vaccines to its eligible population, with health ministry data up until September 30 showing that over 85 percent percent of people in Islamabad had received a first dose and 47 percent were fully vaccinated, while only 15 percent of the target group in the country’s least populous province of Balochistan had as yet been administered one jab.
The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a national vaccination drive in February this year, prioritizing health care workers and elderly citizens before broadening the campaign to the public. Now in the fourth wave of the pandemic, Pakistani officials say a ramped up vaccination campaign has helped to push daily infection rates down from a peak of over nine percent in August to less than two percent currently.
Around 125 million of Pakistan’s 220 million total population is eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine. Among the eligible population, around 90 million have received at least one dose since February, health ministry data shows.
As of Monday this week, fully vaccinated Pakistanis constituted 26 percent of the target population, with all federating units saying they were ramping up efforts to boost daily vaccination rates by launching door-to-door campaigns and forbidding unjabbed people from using public transportation, air travel, buying fuel at petrol stations and availing other essential services.
“COVID-19 vaccination has helped us reduce severity of disease and hospitalization rates among those infected with the virus in Islamabad,” Dr. Hasan Orooj, Director General Health Services in Islamabad, told Arab News, saying the administration was vaccinating eligible people at public transport stands, weekly bazaars and public and private offices also.
“We [Islamabad] are well ahead of our [vaccination] target, but still people should continue to follow health guidelines to prevent the next wave,” Orooj cautioned, adding that his teams were also working to bridge a existing vaccination gap between rural and urban areas of the capital.
“The vaccination numbers in Islamabad’s rural areas are comparatively low, and we are mobilizing our special teams to bring it at par with urban areas,” he said.
According to official data collected by Arab News from all four provinces and Islamabad, the impoverished Balochistan province has the lowest vaccination rates, with only seven percent of the province fully vaccinated and 15 percent partially jabbed. The province is Pakistan’s largest — it makes up over 40 percent of the total land area of Pakistan — but least populous.
Statistics show a total of 1.25 million individuals — including people from other cities — had received at least one dose of a vaccine in Islamabad as of last week, though only 686,905 people had been fully vaccinated.
Islamabad’s eligible population for the COVID-19 vaccination is about 1.46 million, of which 47 percent is fully vaccinated, health department data showed.
PUNJAB
In Punjab, 45 percent people are partially vaccinated, followed by 39 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 35.53 percent in Sindh and 15 percent in Balochistan.
Punjab Health Secretary Imran Sikandar Baloch said approximately 233 million people in the province had been administered a first dose, while a second dose had been administered to more than 10 million people.
“Punjab is leading the national vaccination drive both in numbers and percentages,” Baloch said.
Sharing the vaccination data of major cities in the province, the secretary said 58 percent of Rawalpindi’s population had been administered the first dose, 53 percent of Multan’s, 51 percent of Lahore’s, 52 percent of Gujranwala’s and 41 percent of Faisalabad’s.
The districts of Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin had partially vaccinated 69 percent and 62 percent eligible individuals respectively, the secretary said.
To boost inoculation numbers, Baloch said the provincial government had devised door-to-door campaigns especially in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
“We have also decided to target small populated units with mobile vaccination centers,” he added.
SINDH
In Sindh province, 35.53 percent of 34.8 million eligible individuals had been partially vaccinated, according to the health department. The number of those who had received at least one dose in the province stood at 12.4 million while 5.4 million were fully vaccinated, according to official data compiled until Thursday.
Data from the different divisions of Sindh showed Karachi division was 42.81 percent partially vaccinated, Hyderabad division 29.68 percent, Sukkur division 26.03 percent, Mirpur Khas division 48.94 percent, Shaheed Benazir Abad division 34.06 percent and Larkana division 24.54 percent.
Sindh had administered 150,000 vaccines per day on average in the last two weeks in Sindh province, Mehar Khursheed, a spokesperson for the Sindh Health Department, said.
Sindh is home to Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, the nation’s financial hub, where the vaccine rate is higher than in other parts of the province.
Khursheed said the vaccination rate was high in urban districts due to high awareness among people, while the district administration was strictly implementing an obligatory vaccine regime to improve vaccination numbers in low-performing districts.
“Sindh is the first province that has taken bold steps in terms of the obligatory regime to increase in vaccination coverage like blocking mobile phone SIMs, banning commercial activities and travel by unvaccinated people,” Khursheed told Arab News.
KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities have partially vaccinated around 39 percent of its target population. Overall, more than nine million people from the northwestern province had received a first dose while 3.2 million were fully vaccinated, according to the provincial health department.
Dr. Niaz Muhammad, Director General KP health, said some districts such as Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Chitral, Orakzai, Peshawar and Kurram had good vaccination results but poor awareness continued to fuel vaccine hesitancy and low immunization rates in other areas.
“We are sending outreach teams in view of reluctance among some people and carrying out mass door-to-door vaccination,” Muhammad told Arab News. “People had some concerns due to some media reports coupled with poor awareness but we’re working to improve our communication strategy.”
In addition, he said the government had already announced an obligatory vaccine regime under which the transport sector and school children would need to have received one COVID-19 dose by October 15.
BALOCHISTAN
In Balochistan, official data showed that around 1,482,791 people had been vaccinated in 33 districts of the province between February and September.
Dr. Naqeeb Niazi, Deputy In-charge Operation Cell Primary and Secondary Health Department in Balochistan, said first dose coverage in the province had reached up to 15 percent while only seven percent were fully vaccinated — the lowest vaccination rate in the country.
“We have been implementing an obligatory regime of vaccination from October 1, and hope the vaccination number will increase in districts with low numbers by October 31,” Niazi told Arab News.
A senior official at the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), Pakistan’s federal pandemic response body, said vaccination rates varied “because of the peculiar environment and population of every province.”
“Punjab is leading the vaccination drive among provinces because it is the most populated territory in the country,” he said, declining to be named. “Similarly the low turnout in Balochistan is due to its geographic location, not because of less government motivation to vaccinate the provincial population.”
He said people in the remote, sparsely populated Balochistan province had to travel long distances to reach vaccination centers, while lack of awareness and misinformation also continued to fuel low rates in the region.
“Vaccination numbers are usually low in rural areas of the country for different reasons, including low motivation and luxury to avoid government-imposed restrictions because they don’t need to travel by air or go to restaurants for which it is mandatory to get vaccinated now,” the official said.
- Additional reporting by Naimat Khan in Karachi, Rehmat Mehsud in Peshawar and Saadullah Akhter in Quetta
85% of capital city partially jabbed against COVID-19, only 15% of Pakistan’s largest province — data
https://arab.news/wrxww
85% of capital city partially jabbed against COVID-19, only 15% of Pakistan’s largest province — data
- Arab News gathers vaccine data from Islamabad and four provinces, all figures are with respect to eligible population until September 30
- Fully vaccinated Pakistanis constituted 26 percent of target population of 125 million, 47 percent people in Islamabad fully jabbed
In blow to ruling coalition, Pakistan’s electoral watchdog suspends 77 lawmakers elected on reserved seats
- Ruling follows top court overruling earlier verdict that party aligned with ex-PM Khan backed candidates not eligible for reserved seats
- Suspension of lawmakers means ruling coalition has lost two-thirds majority in National Assembly, which is required to amend constitution
Pakistan’s election regulator has suspended 77 lawmakers elected on reserved seats, dealing a blow to the fragile ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif which has lost the third-thirds parliamentary majority needed to make constitutional amendments.
The Election Commission of Pakistan’s ruling comes a week after the Supreme Court overruled a verdict by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) that a party aligned with candidates backed by former premier Imran Khan was not eligible for reserved seats in the legislature.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party couldn’t contest the Feb. 8 elections under its traditional electoral symbol, a cricket bat, which it was denied on technical grounds, and subsequently struck an alliance with another party, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), in a bid to secure reserved seats for women and minorities in parliament. Under Pakistan’s election rules, political parties are allotted reserved seats in proportion to the number of parliamentary seats they win in the election. This completes the National Assembly’s total strength of 336 seats.
The Election Commission had ruled in March that the SIC was not eligible for reserved seats, a decision the alliance had appealed in the Peshawar High Court, which rejected the petition. The SIC then approached the Supreme Court to appeal the high court’s decision, which last week suspended the PHC’s ruling.
“Pursuant to the order on 6th May, 2024 passed by the honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan, the notifications of the following returned candidates against under mentioned categories of reserved seats are hereby suspended till further orders,” the ECP’s notification read.
With the ECP’s notification, the strength in the National Assembly of PM Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has reduced from 121 to 107 while that of its main coalition partner Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is down from 72 to 67.
This means the ruling coalition has lost its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, with its numerical strength decreasing to 209 from 228. In the 336-member National Assembly, the figure to attain two-thirds majority is 224, without which the government cannot enact reforms or amend laws.
Sharif formed a weak coalition with other parties after February general elections produced a hung parliament. The PML-N’s 79 and the PPP’s 54 seats together made a simple majority in parliament to form a government and they also roped in smaller parties in the coalition.
Candidates backed by Khan won the most seats, 93, but did not have the numbers to form a government. Khan and his party have rejected the results of the elections, alleging widespread rigging.
According to the breakdown of the 77 suspended lawmakers, 44 belong to Sharif’s PML-N party, 15 to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), 13 to the Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F), and one each to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P).
The 77 suspended lawmakers include 22 legislators elected on reserved seats in the National Assembly, 25 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, 27 in the Punjab Assembly, and three in the Sindh Assembly.
Azad Kashmir demonstrators call off protests as government cuts electricity, wheat prices after violent protests
- Protests began on May 11 and lasted for days until the Pakistan government approved $83 million in subsidies
- One police officer and three young demonstrators were killed as protests turned violent in the Himalayan region
ISLAMABAD: An alliance of civil rights groups on Tuesday called off a protest that had lasted for several days across Azad Kashmir and led to serious clashes with police and paramilitary Rangers after the government met its demand to reduce electricity and wheat prices in the region.
The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) organized the protests that started on May 11, seeking subsidized wheat flour and a reduction in electricity tariffs to bring them in line with the hydropower generation cost in Azad Kashmir.
The demonstrations led to four deaths, including one police officer who was reportedly killed by protesters in gunfire, while three demonstrators lost their lives in clashes with Rangers in Muzaffarabad.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Chaudhry said at a news conference on Monday his government had notified reduced wheat and electricity prices after the Pakistani government approved Rs23 billion ($83 million) in subsidies.
“On the appeal of the Awami Action Committee, it has been decided to end the ongoing lockdown and wheel-jam strike across Azad Kashmir,” Amjad Ali Khan, a member of the JAAC core committee, told Arab News on Tuesday.
He said JAAC demanded compensation for the three young demonstrators killed in clashes with Rangers. He also informed that a day of mourning and a shutter-down strike would be held today across Kashmir to honor the three demonstrators.
Speaking about the details of JAAC’s agreement with the government, Khan said the authorities had agreed to drop all the cases and release the arrested individuals.
“The Awami Action Committee demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate police violence in the Mirpur Division and Muzaffarabad,” he added, saying the judicial commission’s investigation should be made public and those responsible should be punished.
Abdul Majid Khan, a spokesperson for the AJK government, said the authorities had shown utmost restraint to pacify the situation.
“All the demands of the protesters have been fulfilled, and the situation will hopefully return to normalcy now,” he told Arab News.
Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the situation in Azad Kashmir had been addressed after the federal government approved the grant to deal with people’s concerns.
“With the grant given by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the issue has been resolved to meet the people’s demands,” he told the media in Islamabad.
He mentioned Azad Kashmir’s special status, pointing out that its affairs were managed with the grants of Pakistan’s federal government.
“The government will look after the police personnel who fell victims of the protests,” he added.
The Himalayan territory of Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from Britain in 1947, with both countries ruling part of the territory but claiming it in full.
The western portion of the larger Kashmir region is administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity, while India rules the southern portion as a union territory.
While the Indian portion has faced an ongoing insurgency for decades and multiple armed attempts by the state to quell it, the Pakistani side has remained relatively calm over the decades, though it is also highly militarized.
Protesters call off march in Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir after demands met
- March called off day after Pakistan’s PM Sharif approves $86 million grant to subsidize flour, electricity
- Clashes between protesters and police, which began last week, claimed lives of three civilians, one cop
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan: An alliance of civil rights group on Tuesday called off a protest march in Pakistan-ruled Kashmir after several days of clashes over high prices in which four people have been killed and over 100 injured, officials said.
Protesters called off the march a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved a grant of 24 billion rupees ($86 million) to help meet most of their demands, which included subsidies on flour and electricity prices.
The alliance’s head, Shaukat Nawaz Mir, announced the decision in Muzaffarabad, the capital city of the scenic Himalayan region.
“The government has accepted all of our demands,” he said, calling on protesters to return to their homes and businesses.
Mir also demanded the government give financial compensation for the families of three protesters and a police official who were killed in the violence.
The protesters were killed on Monday evening after paramilitary troops opened fire when they were attacked, said local government official Adnan Khurshid. The police official died in clashes over the weekend.
Kashmir’s Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Chaudhry said late on Monday that the funds would help lower some prices in the region.
The subsidized rate for 40 kgs (88.2 lb) of flour will be 2,000 rupees, down from 3,100 rupees, he said. He also announced a substantial dip in the electricity prices.
The protests coincide with the visit of an International Monetary Fund mission to negotiate a new long-term loan with Islamabad.
The IMF has already warned that social tensions triggered by the high cost of living could weigh on policy implementation, adding that fiscal slippages could present a challenge for the government.
PM says Pakistan to privatize all state-owned entities except ‘strategically important’ ones
- Finance Minister Aurangzeb last week said there is “no such thing as strategic” public entities
- Privatization of debt-ridden state entities is major reform demanded by IMF as Pakistan negotiates new bailout
KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on Tuesday that his government would privatize all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) except for those deemed “strategically important” or essential ones, state-owned media reported, as Islamabad looks to overhaul its public entities to improve their performance.
The announcement is in direct conflict with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s statement from Sunday in which he said that all public entities would be handed over to the private sector. The minister had said he and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar were on the same page that “there is no such thing as a strategic SOE.”
Former finance minister Dar had chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Privatization on May 10 in which he had said the government’s business would only be limited to essential or strategic SOEs. Dar said while priority would be accorded to loss-making entities, even SOEs who were earning profits would be considered for privatization.
PM Sharif chaired a high-level meeting on matters related to the Ministry of Privatization and Privatization Commission on Tuesday, the state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced to privatize all government-owned enterprises with the exception of strategically important state-owned enterprises,” Radio Pakistan said. “The Prime Minister directed all federal ministries to take necessary action in this regard and cooperate with the Privatization Commission.”
Pakistan’s Finance Division has defined strategic entities as those whose functions have significant strategic, security, or social importance in addition to economic values for the country. It has defined essential SOEs as those which are critical for the execution of government policies and where the private sector is unable to assume those functions due to various reasons.
The Oil & Gas Development Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan State Oil (PSO), National Bank of Pakistan, and hydropower projects are considered strategically important enterprises owned by the government. However, the government has not classified strategic assets for privatization yet.
Pakistan agreed to overhaul its public entities under a $3 billion financial bailout agreement it signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year, a deal that helped it avert a sovereign debt default in 2023. The IMF has said Pakistan’s SOEs whose losses are burning a hole in government finances would need stronger governance. Pakistan is currently negotiating with the international lender for a larger, longer program for which it must implement an ambitious reforms agenda, including the privatization of debt-ridden SOEs.
Among the main entities Pakistan is pushing to privatize is its national flag carrier, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The government is putting on the block a stake ranging from 51 percent to 100 percent.
Sharif instructed authorities to ensure transparency in the privatization process of all state-owned entities, including the PIA.
“He directed to televise live Pakistan International Airlines Company Limited’s privatization including bidding and other important steps,” Radio Pakistan said. “The process of privatization of other institutions will also be broadcast live.”
The prime minister was informed that the pre-qualification process for PIA’s privatization would be completed by the end of May. He was told loss-making SOEs would be privatized on priority and that a “pre-qualified panel of experts” is being appointed in Pakistan’s Privatization Commission to speed up the process.
Separately, Aurangzeb chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises on Monday which was attended by ministers of maritime affairs, economic affairs, housing and works, the governor of Pakistan’s central bank and other officials. The meeting was held to evaluate the performance of the country’s public entities and review the progress of the government’s privatization agenda.
Aurangzeb directed concerned ministries and divisions to submit proposals for the categorization of their respective public entities by May 20. The step is aimed at reviewing the rationale for retaining any commercial functions within the public sector, the finance ministry said.
“The objective is to retain only the essential functions within the public sector & to assign the remaining functions to the private sector,” it said. “At the same time the entities which remain in public sector have to be more competitive, accountable, and responsive to the needs of citizens.”
Participants agreed to foster transparency, efficiency, and sustainable growth within the SOEs, reflecting the government’s dedication to ensuring the optimal utilization of public resources, the ministry said.
Tahir Abbas, the head of research at Arif Habib Limited, considered Pakistan’s largest securities brokerage company, said the conflicting statements between Sharif and Aurangzeb showed lack of coordination between them.
“There seems lack of coordination between them on the classification of assets for privatization,” he told Arab News.
Pakistan face dangerous Ireland in T20I series decider today
- Buoyed by stellar performances from Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Pakistan beat Ireland on Sunday to level series 1-1
- After Ireland series, Pakistan will head to England for four-match T20 series as preparation before T20 World Cup
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will face a dangerous Ireland cricket team today, Tuesday, in the third and final T20 match of the series between the two teams in Dublin, as both sides look to gain momentum with less than a month to go before the World Cup kicks off in June.
The visitors were shocked by minnows Ireland last week when they lost in the series opener on Friday. However, the South Asian country bounced back in the second T20I on Friday, beating Ireland by seven wickets in a match that saw stellar performances from Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Shah Afridi and a late blitz from Azam Khan.
“The third and last T-20 between Pakistan and Ireland will be played at Dublin today,” state-run Radio Pakistan reported. “The match will start at 7:00 p.m. Pakistan Standard Time.”
Pakistan and Ireland are both in Group A of the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA. They will face each other in the tournament on 16 June, Sunday, in Florida. Ireland have given Pakistan a tough time in the series, losing the second match after taking early breakthroughs and handing skipper Babar Azam’s side an impressive 194-run target.
Pakistan’s bowling attack, considered its main strength which features the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Mohammad Amir, has been in the spotlight for conceding too many runs and failing to trouble the Irish batters much.
Separately, Cricket Ireland on Monday officially confirmed a first men’s tour of Pakistan in August and September in 2025. The series will see both countries play three T20Is and three ODIs against each other. It was part of the Future Tours Programme (FTP) of the ICC scheduled for September 2025.
The decision was finalized after Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi met Cricket Ireland Chairman Brain MacNeice. A statement released by the PCB, however, did not mention any dates and venues for the schedule of the series. It follows in the wake of Ireland Women touring Pakistan, who also played three ODIs and three T20Is in November 2022.
The Pakistan men’s team will head to England for a four-match T20I series after the third T20I against Ireland. Following the England series, with matches scheduled at Headingley (22 May), Birmingham (25 May), Cardiff (28 May), and The Oval, London (30 May), both England and Pakistan will head to the US for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
England will face Scotland in Barbados on June 4 in their opening match, while Pakistan will launch their campaign against the United States (US) in Dallas on June 6. Pakistan will take on arch-rivals India on June 9 in New York which is set to be one of the most anticipated clashes of the T20 World Cup.
Squads:
Ireland: Paul Stirling (captain), Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Andrew Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Barry McCarthy, Neil Rock, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir (unavailable for first T20I), Mohammad Rizwan, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Usman Khan
