KARACHI: Fahad Khalil almost refused to accompany the polio team heading towards Qayyumabad when he received a call from one of the polio team representatives a day before Jan 21 last year.

A student of commerce, 21-year-old Fahad was preparing for his examinations scheduled for a week later and communicated his reasons to his boss.

Read: Three killed in attack on polio team in Karachi

But the next morning, he got ready around 10am and left the house before his brother could reason with him.

“He accompanied the polio team as an added helper for Rs250, and was waiting for the salary for seven months,” said his elder brother Khurram Khalil, a resident of Jamshed Town number 3. “Apart from that he worked as a storekeeper at a Korangi hospital. He was well aware of the security threat faced by polio teams. When I stopped him that morning, he told me his team needed him as many others had already refused. I remember retorting that those people are smart.”

By 11.15am, the news channels starting reporting about an attack on a polio team in Qayyumabad.

Fahad was killed along with two other team members receiving seven bullet wounds in the chest. According to the police, the area people informed them that two men on a motorbike were waiting for the polio team and making inquiries before their arrival.

Speaking to Dawn over the telephone, Mr Khurram said he regretted letting his brother go that morning. Soon after the attack on the polio team workers, the families of the victims received a compensation of Rs500,000 from the Sindh government with a promise that one of their family members would get a job as a health worker soon.

He said that this had become a norm, especially in situations involving security threats. “We received the compensation but are waiting for the job.

Thankfully, we are not financially dependent on anyone as I provide for my family. But it amazes me how life has no value anymore. Soon, the news of this team’s death was overshadowed by other major or similar stories.”

Fahad was accompanied by two female workers — one of them was 36-year-old Akbari Jumman. Considered one of the most efficient workers by her colleagues, she was the sole breadwinner of her family. She was brought to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre with seven bullets in her body out of which the one in her head proved fatal.

Her husband 35-year-old Jumman Ibrahim takes care of their four children now and works at a garment factory at SITE for Rs7,000. When asked about his life after the death of his wife, he said: “We received the compensation but the children lost their mother.

The eldest one, Aman Ali, has polio and is a special child — he cannot speak or listen. He usually wails for his mother at nights as she loved him and cared for him the most. When I asked her to look for another job, she said, ‘I feel I’m helping Aman get to his feet by helping these children.’”

At the moment, Mr Jumman is running from pillar to post to get a job for his sister-in-law who showed willingness to work as a lady health worker. “We know it is threatening but this is what it is. Yeh job bhe mil jaye tu bohot hai (It will be enough, if we get this job).”

Provincial head of the lady health workers’ association Khairun Nisa Memon said: “Polio eradication and polio workers have become a joke.” Speaking about the issues facing polio workers, she said: “Apart from the obvious security threat in Karachi, young men and children harass female workers in villages and goths by pelting them with stones. Two months ago, a lady health worker in Jacobabad was asked by an accompanying policeman to vaccinate his children also. Once she went inside his home, he tried to molest her. The officer was tried and sacked but the threat is much bigger and still very much there.”

She said as a result of the constant threat volunteers recently refused to work for the meagre sum of Rs250. “I’m a permanent employee and even I don’t get my salary on a regular basis. Amidst all this, there are female health workers who are willing to go out in the field. I think Pakistan can eradicate polio only if there is a genuine will to eradicate it.”

Karachi executive district officer Dr Zafar Ijaz said that the government had marked 11 high risk union councils in Karachi, which included UCs in Gadap, SITE, Orangi Town, Baldia Town, Bin Qasim Town and Landhi.

“It is not about polio workers. It’s not them or us. This situation concerns all of us. And as much as we don’t like to admit it, we are all sitting targets,” he added.

Explaining, he said the district administration, the police and the health department were already on board and there was a plan to include the Rangers to boost security.

“We wouldn’t have come to this if the basic health units were active and working. Nobody focused on it and at present we are taking these incidents as learning experiences, which is unfortunate,” he said.

Spokesperson for the polio cell at prime minister decretariat in Islamabad Mazhar Nisar said: “Not all attacks on polio teams are related to the cause of polio but includes personal enmity as well. For instance, a polio worker was killed in Nowshera due to personal rivalry and not because he was with a polio team.”

Explaining further, he added that “violent attacks on polio teams have decreased over time and those that do occur are extremely unfortunate”.

He added that the government was focused on syncing the communication, operational and security plan together so that such incidents could be averted in the future.

The initiative to eradicate polio from Pakistan has often been criticised by senior doctors and practitioners who argue that a low-key drive involving the basic health centres is the key to eradicate it.

Mr Nisar said: “At the moment, we are after complete eradication of polio not its prevention. We have to go all out in our efforts as the number of polio cases in Pakistan is at all-time high.”

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2015

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