Pakistan must eradicate virus of extremism
Syed Fazl-e-Haider says the target killings of polio vaccine campaigners is unconscionable
Pakistan's hopes of becoming a polio-free nation are in peril after the suspension of an immunisation campaign in the wake of the recent extremist killings of vaccination workers in Karachi and Peshawar.
More than 3.5 million Pakistani children are now at risk after missing out on the vaccination shots.
Pakistan remains one of only three countries in the world, along with Nigeria and Afghanistan, where polio is still endemic. Most alarming is the fact that it is the only country in Asia with confirmed wild poliovirus type 3 transmissions. Last year, the polio virus reportedly spread from Pakistan to Xinjiang.
It is not possible for the country to defeat polio without defeating the Taliban, which does not hesitate to hit soft targets like polio workers to impose its radical agenda, even though targeting anti-polio workers means playing with the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in Pakistan.
The Islamist extremists have labelled the World Health Organisation's anti-polio drive an "infidel" campaign, and say it is a cover for espionage.
The Taliban actually see each polio worker as another Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the US hunt down Osama bin Laden last year, using a hepatitis vaccination programme as a cover.
The extremists also claim that the vaccine contains pig fat and makes people infertile.