Animal experts will decide in the coming days whether an ailing elephant at a zoo in Pakistan needs to be euthanized after it collapsed in its pen last week and has since failed to stand up, officials said.
The 17-year-old African elephant underwent emergency treatment for a tumor in Karachi on April 5, but collapsed days later and has since lain stricken on its side.
The pitiful plight of Noor Jehan is being shared by animal rights activists on social media in Pakistan and abroad, prompting calls for the zoo to be shut down.
Pakistan's zoos are frequently accused of disregarding animal welfare, and in 2020 a court ordered the only facility in the country's capital to close because of its decrepit state.
Noor Jehan's fate now lies with a committee waiting for the arrival of Amir Khalil, the Austria-based chief vet of animal charity Four Paws International.
Khalil, who led the team that treated Noor Jehan for the tumor, told AFP he wanted to have "one last try" at helping the pachyderm recover.
"We will fight till the last for her recovery, and the rest is in the hands of Allah," said Kanwar Ayub, the director of Karachi Zoo.
"We are diligently following Four Paws instructions for Noor Jehan's treatment."
Noor Jehan is still eating despite being on her side, pin-pricked by drips, and regularly doused with water to cool her down.
"Her condition remains critical and uncertain," Four Paws said.
Vet Khalil said the focus would likely shift to Noor Jehan's pen pal, Madhubala, with the hope of finding her better accommodation.
"We will do what we can for Noor Jehan but really we need to move the other animal," he said.
In 2019 Islamabad's zoo was shut down after drawing international condemnation for its treatment of an Asian elephant named Kaavan.
Kavaan was later airlifted to retirement in Cambodia in a project spearheaded by US popstar and actor Cher and carried out by Four Paws.
Ailing Pakistan elephant Noor Jehan may be euthanized after collapsing
https://arab.news/9qwn6
Ailing Pakistan elephant Noor Jehan may be euthanized after collapsing
- Noor Jehan underwent emergency treatment for a tumor in Karachi on April 5 but collapsed just days later
- Four Paws chief vet Amir Khalil is returning to Pakistan, says wants to have "one last try" to save Noor Jehan
Pakistan vaccinates over 26 million children amid declining polio cases
- Pakistani authorities say polio cases dropped to 31 in 2025 from 74 a year earlier
- Over 400,000 workers deployed as Pakistan, Afghanistan run simultaneous campaigns
KARACHI: Pakistan on Wednesday said its first nationwide polio vaccination drive of 2026 was continuing for a third day, with health workers having immunized more than 26.8 million children amid a decline in reported cases of the crippling disease.
The campaign, being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, comes after Pakistan reported 31 polio cases in 2025, a significant drop from 74 cases in 2024, which officials had described as alarming.
More than 400,000 polio workers are going door to door across the country to administer oral polio drops to children, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said.
“More than 26.8 million children have been vaccinated nationwide in the first two days of the campaign,” it said in an update, urging parents to cooperate with vaccination teams and ensure their children receive the drops.
According to the statement, more than 14.5 million children have been vaccinated in Punjab, 5.88 million in Sindh, 4.32 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and around 1.28 million in Balochistan.
Vaccination figures also included nearly 294,000 children in Islamabad, more than 165,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 446,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Health authorities warned that polio is an incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis, stressing that sustained immunization efforts were essential to prevent its spread.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, and both have stepped up coordinated vaccination drives in recent years amid concerns about cross-border transmission.
