‘New polio cases have their origin in Afghanistan’

Australian expert says $500,000 needed to rid Pakistan of polio

Karachi

At least $0.5 million are needed to make Pakistan polio-free, a foreign expert said on Saturday during the second day of Annual Rotary District Conference.

“New cases of polio in Pakistan ostensibly have their origin in Afghanistan,” noted Dr Susan Rae from Australia.

Begum Shahnaz Wazir Ali lauded the Rotarians’ involvement in the anti-polio campaign. She said the UNICEF, the WHO, and the Rotary Headquarters in Chicago were managing the programme very astutely. Unfortunately, our knowledge is very limited and we did not realise that the virus can be transmitted through servants, drivers and others coming to our homes for routine assignments,” she added.

Aziz Memon, the chairman of Polio Plus, highlighted the efforts being made in the country to make it polio-free.

On the first day of the conference, Thariq Thulba, the representative of Rotary International’s president, had said the people of Pakistan were not alone in their fight against polio as all 1.2 million Rotarians around the world were just as keen on seeing this country eradicate the disease.

 

Education and literacy

The past district governor of the Rotary International Pakistan, while talking about education and literacy, said they have had had a very enriching relationship with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

He said that since 1947, the US had provided the country with $47 billion, a large part of which went towards education.

“We have to work at the grassroots level which means that well have to partner government schools”, he said.

In between, children of the Al-Qadir school, Lyari, presented a tableaux depicted a daughter’s love for her father and her very tender and touching letters to him.

   

‘CPEC a game changer’

During a discussion on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor at the conference, Senator Talha Mehmood described the project as a game changer. He said so far Pakistan’s economic position had been precarious. Then came this game-changing project.

According to his analysis, when China examined the separatist tendencies in its areas bordering Pakistan, it realised that it was economic backwardness. “So they [the Chinese] started rapid progress and allocated 5 billion Yuan for the process.

The project, he said was multifaceted and was not just a road link but incorporated lots of projects.  A deep water port, which Gwadar was, he said, was a mighty advantage.

The only thing worthy worrying about was the law and order situation for which, he said, Pakistan had raised a special force.

“I should not be considered a purely Pak-Chinese project. Even Russia should be made to join in where considered fit. US companies could also be made to join in.”

He said that three billion people from the world over would benefit from it.

Dr Miftah Ismail, the chairman of the Board of Investment, said that the $46 billion project envisaged a Qatar-assisted power plant of 1,320 MW, the Hub Energy Project of 660 MW, and the coal power projects in Thar. “The corridor is not a physical road, but an integrated plan for an industrial zone,” he added.

A gas prospecting company would be established with Chinese assistance. Gwadar-Nawabshah physical connection would be established and development would be spurred in the areas along the way that had been lagging behind. There would be a Khushab-Gwadar highway and small-scale steel pants would come up that would expedite employment.

Privatisation minister Muhammad Zubair termed the project a gateway to unprecedented economic progress and would have very desirable effects on regional trade. He said that the importance of the project could be gauged from the fact that Prime Minister Nawaz

Sharif was the first prime minister who went to China right after his election rather than Saudi Arabia “You have to take all stakeholders on board”, he said. He disclosed that recently the prime minister was closeted with the Planning Commission for five long hours just in connection with the project.

However, the tenor of the speech of Hasil Bizenjo, a senator from Balochistan was different. “We have to see what China is getting from this project”, he said. “In the colonial days, he said, Russia and the UK were locking horns for the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. At the end of the colonial era, it turned into a US-USSR tussle. They all failed. However, China, without the least of struggle, has achieved the objective. “We must forget that 70 percent of the world’s oil passes through the Straits of Hormuz”, he said.

Referring to China’s investment of $45 billion in the power sector, he said China planned to bring back 10 million Muslims back into the parts of China bordering Pakistan. China would get back its investment in the power sector, he said. “We must examine with cool minds as to what China was getting out of the corridor,” he said in a firm tone. “The Baloch must not be turned into Red Indians [native Americans] in their own province.”

Former Senator Aslam Buledi from Balochistan said, “We Baloch are very pro-development but we are even more particular about our identity and our demography. I want to tell all and sundry that none, no matter how strong, will be able to suppress us if attempts are made to tamper with our identity and our demography. We refuse to be turned into Red Indians in our home province.”