DAWN Editorials - 27th April 2025
Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2025 10:00 pm
From gains to gaps
AS we mark World Immunisation Week 2025 — themed ‘Immunisation for All is Humanly Possible’ — we are faced with a tragic reality: after decades of gains, global vaccination efforts are hitting turbulence. Outbreaks of measles, meningitis and even yellow fever are resurging, with measles cases alone up 20pc in 2023 to over 10m. Diseases once nearly vanquished are creeping back as routine immunisation falters in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, support for immunisation is flagging: funding has been slashed, notably the Trump administration’s rollback of America’s contributions to vaccine programmes. The WHO and Unicef warn that donor cuts have disrupted vaccination efforts in nearly half of the 108 countries surveyed — a recipe for the return of preventable diseases.
For Pakistan, the stakes are especially high. It is one of only two countries in the world where wild polio still circulates, and after coming close to eradication it has seen a worrying resurgence — climbing to 74 polio cases in 2024. At the same time, routine immunisation has stagnated. Last year, 1.2m Pakistani infants — out of the 7.3m targeted — missed their measles vaccinations, leaving the door wide open to outbreaks. Vaccination coverage remains highly uneven across the country, with consistently low rates in Balochistan, southern Punjab, parts of Karachi, and areas of southern KP. Pakistan is home to over 600,000 zero-dose children annually — those who have never had even a single vaccine dose. Many live in conflict-affected or remote areas, underscoring the urgent need to extend vaccine access beyond urban centres. Multiple factors have stalled our immunisation progress. Misinformation and distrust are rife; bizarre conspiracy theories about vaccines still circulate. This was exacerbated by a CIA-sponsored fake vaccination drive in 2011 — a deception that validated the worst suspicions. Extremist propaganda seized on that episode to demonise polio drops. To this day, health workers, and those protecting them, face threats on the job. Just this week, two security personnel guarding a polio team were martyred.
Yet these challenges can be overcome — because immunising every child is indeed humanly possible. The first priority is rebuilding trust — and ensuring vaccinators can work safely on the front lines. Health officials should partner with the ulema, community elders and teachers to champion vaccination and dispel myths; when religious leaders publicly affirm that vaccines are safe and halal, it boosts community acceptance. The second imperative is practical: ensure a reliable vaccine supply, strengthen the cold chain, and bolster disease surveillance so that doses safely reach every village. Pakistan’s Covid-19 response proved it can execute mass vaccination — delivering over 300m vaccine doses through organised drives. That same level of national resolve is now needed to ensure no child is left vulnerable to preventable diseases.
Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2025
Crisis talks
ASININE statements about Pakistan and India’s ‘1,500-year’ dispute over Kashmir are unlikely to help this corner of the world navigate its latest almost-war.
Directed efforts to reduce tensions and force diplomacy just might. It seems India may have overplayed its hand by jumping straight to accusations against its eastern neighbour, which the rest of the world has not been as ready to accept as it may have hoped. This should boost morale in Islamabad, and Pakistani authorities have made the right move by calling for a neutral, international probe into the Pahalgam tragedy.
But with America neck-deep in the Ukraine and Middle East crises, there seems to be little interest in Washington about the possible outcomes of the latest Pakistan-India flare-up. Various Trump administration officials have offered India their sympathies and some support, but not the validation New Delhi has desperately sought for its combative stance against Pakistan. But US President Donald Trump can do better than expect the two states to “get it figured out, one way or another”.
India’s extreme reaction to the attack has created a situation in which a global intervention may be necessary to create space for de-escalation, and Mr Trump, who claims to know the leadership of both countries, may be better placed than most to find a way out.
Meanwhile, others are already attempting to defuse the crisis. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran, both countries with strong relationships with India and Pakistan, have made phone calls to Islamabad and New Delhi, offering to mediate crisis talks.
The UN has called for maximum restraint and “meaningful mutual engagement”, with the UN spokesman telling media in New York that issues between the countries “can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement”. There is, after all, much at stake given both countries’ nuclear-armed status and propensity for conflict.
It is therefore far more mature to seek de-escalation through intermediation than to expect that the two countries, which even ordinarily refuse to talk to each other, will figure out their differences in the midst of a severe breakdown in trust.
It is hoped that other responsible world powers will also act before any mistake or misadventure occurs that could further inflame tensions. Sense needs to be restored so that the Pahalgam attack may be independently investigated and the victims given justice.
Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2025
BYC women in jail
THE detained Baloch Yakjehti Committee leader Mahrang Baloch and other BYC activists, including women, are reported to have been on a hunger strike since Thursday to protest against alleged police brutality and the failure of the justice system to safeguard their rights. Meanwhile, BYC supporters are staging rallies across Balochistan for the release of activists who were arrested more than a month ago under the dubious MPO law. Veteran Baloch leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal has also denounced the detention of the women activists, terming it unprecedented in the province’s history. The BYC leadership has alleged that the authorities planned to separate the detainees by transferring them to different jails.
Mahrang is apparently facing the state’s wrath for forcefully raising her voice on the issue of enforced disappearances — initially focusing on her own family and then as part of a broader movement. Since she was arrested, a malicious campaign has been launched against her on both social and mainstream media, linking her with Baloch secessionists and the gruesome attack targeting the Jaffar Express. But her support among the Baloch population has refused to wane. The PPP, which is leading the coalition in the conflict-ridden province, should know better than most about how women prisoners are treated by jail staff in the country. It must also know that no amount of state brutality has ever been able to break the resolve of political prisoners, especially women activists. The proponents of a ‘hard state’, too, should realise that their actions, which do not distinguish between militant separatists and political and rights activists, have deeply alienated an entire Baloch generation, embroiling the province in a cycle of endless violence. There is no doubt that the militant secessionist elements need to be dealt with sternly, even eliminated. But at the same time the state should engage with the more practical political voices from the province and address their legitimate demands. Time is of the essence in this context.
Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2025
AS we mark World Immunisation Week 2025 — themed ‘Immunisation for All is Humanly Possible’ — we are faced with a tragic reality: after decades of gains, global vaccination efforts are hitting turbulence. Outbreaks of measles, meningitis and even yellow fever are resurging, with measles cases alone up 20pc in 2023 to over 10m. Diseases once nearly vanquished are creeping back as routine immunisation falters in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, support for immunisation is flagging: funding has been slashed, notably the Trump administration’s rollback of America’s contributions to vaccine programmes. The WHO and Unicef warn that donor cuts have disrupted vaccination efforts in nearly half of the 108 countries surveyed — a recipe for the return of preventable diseases.
For Pakistan, the stakes are especially high. It is one of only two countries in the world where wild polio still circulates, and after coming close to eradication it has seen a worrying resurgence — climbing to 74 polio cases in 2024. At the same time, routine immunisation has stagnated. Last year, 1.2m Pakistani infants — out of the 7.3m targeted — missed their measles vaccinations, leaving the door wide open to outbreaks. Vaccination coverage remains highly uneven across the country, with consistently low rates in Balochistan, southern Punjab, parts of Karachi, and areas of southern KP. Pakistan is home to over 600,000 zero-dose children annually — those who have never had even a single vaccine dose. Many live in conflict-affected or remote areas, underscoring the urgent need to extend vaccine access beyond urban centres. Multiple factors have stalled our immunisation progress. Misinformation and distrust are rife; bizarre conspiracy theories about vaccines still circulate. This was exacerbated by a CIA-sponsored fake vaccination drive in 2011 — a deception that validated the worst suspicions. Extremist propaganda seized on that episode to demonise polio drops. To this day, health workers, and those protecting them, face threats on the job. Just this week, two security personnel guarding a polio team were martyred.
Yet these challenges can be overcome — because immunising every child is indeed humanly possible. The first priority is rebuilding trust — and ensuring vaccinators can work safely on the front lines. Health officials should partner with the ulema, community elders and teachers to champion vaccination and dispel myths; when religious leaders publicly affirm that vaccines are safe and halal, it boosts community acceptance. The second imperative is practical: ensure a reliable vaccine supply, strengthen the cold chain, and bolster disease surveillance so that doses safely reach every village. Pakistan’s Covid-19 response proved it can execute mass vaccination — delivering over 300m vaccine doses through organised drives. That same level of national resolve is now needed to ensure no child is left vulnerable to preventable diseases.
Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2025
Crisis talks
ASININE statements about Pakistan and India’s ‘1,500-year’ dispute over Kashmir are unlikely to help this corner of the world navigate its latest almost-war.
Directed efforts to reduce tensions and force diplomacy just might. It seems India may have overplayed its hand by jumping straight to accusations against its eastern neighbour, which the rest of the world has not been as ready to accept as it may have hoped. This should boost morale in Islamabad, and Pakistani authorities have made the right move by calling for a neutral, international probe into the Pahalgam tragedy.
But with America neck-deep in the Ukraine and Middle East crises, there seems to be little interest in Washington about the possible outcomes of the latest Pakistan-India flare-up. Various Trump administration officials have offered India their sympathies and some support, but not the validation New Delhi has desperately sought for its combative stance against Pakistan. But US President Donald Trump can do better than expect the two states to “get it figured out, one way or another”.
India’s extreme reaction to the attack has created a situation in which a global intervention may be necessary to create space for de-escalation, and Mr Trump, who claims to know the leadership of both countries, may be better placed than most to find a way out.
Meanwhile, others are already attempting to defuse the crisis. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran, both countries with strong relationships with India and Pakistan, have made phone calls to Islamabad and New Delhi, offering to mediate crisis talks.
The UN has called for maximum restraint and “meaningful mutual engagement”, with the UN spokesman telling media in New York that issues between the countries “can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement”. There is, after all, much at stake given both countries’ nuclear-armed status and propensity for conflict.
It is therefore far more mature to seek de-escalation through intermediation than to expect that the two countries, which even ordinarily refuse to talk to each other, will figure out their differences in the midst of a severe breakdown in trust.
It is hoped that other responsible world powers will also act before any mistake or misadventure occurs that could further inflame tensions. Sense needs to be restored so that the Pahalgam attack may be independently investigated and the victims given justice.
Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2025
BYC women in jail
THE detained Baloch Yakjehti Committee leader Mahrang Baloch and other BYC activists, including women, are reported to have been on a hunger strike since Thursday to protest against alleged police brutality and the failure of the justice system to safeguard their rights. Meanwhile, BYC supporters are staging rallies across Balochistan for the release of activists who were arrested more than a month ago under the dubious MPO law. Veteran Baloch leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal has also denounced the detention of the women activists, terming it unprecedented in the province’s history. The BYC leadership has alleged that the authorities planned to separate the detainees by transferring them to different jails.
Mahrang is apparently facing the state’s wrath for forcefully raising her voice on the issue of enforced disappearances — initially focusing on her own family and then as part of a broader movement. Since she was arrested, a malicious campaign has been launched against her on both social and mainstream media, linking her with Baloch secessionists and the gruesome attack targeting the Jaffar Express. But her support among the Baloch population has refused to wane. The PPP, which is leading the coalition in the conflict-ridden province, should know better than most about how women prisoners are treated by jail staff in the country. It must also know that no amount of state brutality has ever been able to break the resolve of political prisoners, especially women activists. The proponents of a ‘hard state’, too, should realise that their actions, which do not distinguish between militant separatists and political and rights activists, have deeply alienated an entire Baloch generation, embroiling the province in a cycle of endless violence. There is no doubt that the militant secessionist elements need to be dealt with sternly, even eliminated. But at the same time the state should engage with the more practical political voices from the province and address their legitimate demands. Time is of the essence in this context.
Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2025