ISLAMABAD: Around 40 million Pakistani children have missed polio drops as the nationwide vaccination program in April has been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, officials from the country’s polio eradication center and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) told Arab News.
“We planned to vaccinate 40 million children under the age of five during our nationwide immunization campaign in April, which could not take place due to the COVID-19 emergency,” said Rana Muhammad Safdar, national coordinator of the Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. He added that the vaccination program has been suspended until May 31.
“We will assess the situation and when the COVID-19 situation is controlled, we will start our campaign again with a modified program to minimize the adverse impact of the missed period,” Safdar told Arab News on Tuesday. “We don’t have any option. If we continue with the campaign it will not only threaten the lives of workers, but also of children and their families as polio workers have to go door-to-door for immunization.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) decided on March 26 that for the next six months all anti-polio activities, including house-to-house surveillance should be suspended to avoid placing communities and frontline workers at risk.
“In our nationwide campaigns, we take services of more than 260,000 vaccinators all over Pakistan,” Safdar said. “They include our polio workers and volunteers. We have data from all over the country, and we can go as deep as union councils. We have achieved more than 95 percent success in our target of vaccinating 40 million during our last nationwide campaign in February 2020.”
According to data from Pakistan Polio Eradication Program (PPEP), 147 polio cases were reported in Pakistan in 2019 and 39 since the beginning of 2020. Polio is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan and continues to be a problem in about 10 other countries.
Mass vaccination campaigns — which occur as frequently as every month — are critical to stopping polio, as eradication requires that more than 95 percent of children under five be immunized.
“To curb the spread of the (polio) virus, we have chalked out an aggressive immunization campaign after facing a crisis in 2019. We have identified 40 super high-risk hotspots from where it used to emerge, where we have worked hard to improve immunization, sanitation and nutrition through a special program to increase the immunity level of children,” Safdar said.
His team is working on a system to provide routine immunization to newborn children if the COVID-19 health emergency persists, and has also been engaged in coronavirus response, he said, “We are providing our services in surveillance of cases and contact tracing to minimize local transmission. We have the best surveillance system with presence in every district of Pakistan. The whole COVID-19 surveillance is led by the polio program’s team, with more than 10,000 health facilities and over 25,000 workers.”
A senior UNICEF official, who requested not to be named due to the agency’s commitment with the government, said “UNICEF is working as a partner of the Pakistani government’s polio eradication program and will provide its assistance for an additional national immunization program this year for the 40 million children who could not get vaccinated in April.”
“We might have to do two campaigns after the normalization of the COVID- 19 situation in Pakistan,” the official told Arab News on Monday.
The global effort to wipe out polio began in 1988, aiming to eliminate the disease by 2000. But the initiative has been hobbled by numerous problems, including resistance to vaccination efforts and limited access to conflict areas.
40 million Pakistani children miss polio drops amid COVID-19 crisis
https://arab.news/vvtr9
40 million Pakistani children miss polio drops amid COVID-19 crisis
- 25,000 polio workers are helping in COVID-19 response, says national coordinator for anti-polio campaign
- UNICEF official says the agency will work with government on additional immunization after the pandemic
Pakistan launches privatization process for five power distributors under IMF reforms
- Power-sector losses have pushed circular debt above $9 billion, official documents show
- Move is tied to IMF and World Bank conditions aimed at cutting subsidies and fiscal risk
KARACHI: Pakistan has appointed financial advisers and launched sell-side due diligence for the privatization of five electricity distribution companies, marking a long-awaited step in power-sector reforms tied to International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank programs, according to official documents shared with media on Monday.
The five companies, namely Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO), Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO), Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO), Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) and Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO), supply electricity to tens of millions of customers and have long been a major source of financial losses for the state.
Pakistan’s power sector has accumulated more than Rs2.6 trillion (about $9.3 billion) in circular debt as of mid-2025, driven largely by distribution losses, electricity theft and weak bill recovery, according to official government data cited in the documents. The shortfall has repeatedly forced the government to provide subsidies, adding pressure to public finances in an economy under IMF supervision.
“The objective is to reduce losses, improve efficiency and limit the government’s fiscal exposure by transferring electricity distribution operations to the private sector,” the documents said, adding that sell-side due diligence for five distribution companies is under way as a prerequisite for investor engagement.
Two utilities, the Quetta Electric Supply Company and Tribal Areas Electric Supply Company, are excluded from the current privatization phase due to security and structural constraints, the documents said.
Power-sector reform is a central pillar of Pakistan’s IMF bailout program, under which Islamabad has committed to restructuring state-owned enterprises, improving governance and reducing budgetary support. The World Bank has also linked future energy-sector financing to progress on structural reforms.
Electricity distribution companies in Pakistan routinely report losses exceeding 20 percent of supplied power, far above international benchmarks, according to official figures. These inefficiencies have been a persistent obstacle to economic growth, investment and reliable power supply.
Previous attempts to privatize power distributors have stalled amid political resistance, labor union opposition and concerns over tariff increases. While officials have not announced a timeline for completing transactions, the launch of due diligence marks the most concrete step taken in years. International lenders and investors will now be closely watching whether Pakistan can translate this phase into completed sales, a key test of its ability to deliver on IMF-backed reforms.
In a related development in Pakistan’s privatization agenda, the government last month concluded the long-delayed sale of a 75 percent stake in national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in a publicly televised auction. A consortium led by the Arif Habib Group emerged as the highest bidder with a Rs135 billion ($482 million) offer for the controlling stake, in a transaction officials have said will end decades of state-funded bailouts and inject fresh capital into the loss-making airline.
