Polio officers urge WHO to extend contracts, reinstate fired workers

Islamabad : Dozens of polio officers whose services had been engaged at the Union Council level assembled outside the office of the World Health Organization (WHO) here Tuesday to demand extension of their contracts and reinstatement of fired colleagues.

‘Stop this injustice,’ ‘Reinstate all Union Council Polio Officers,’ the protestors demanded, reminding WHO of their active participation in the fight against polio despite threats to their lives and humiliation at the hands of parents hell-bent on refusing vaccination to their children.

“We served the country at a difficult time when there were serious threats to our lives; instead of being appreciated for our sacrifices as frontline warriors against polio, we are being fired from our jobs,” complained one of the WHO contractual staff members participating in the protest.

The protestors counted their core competencies in areas such as routine immunization, outreach vaccination, measles campaigns, AFP surveillance, polio vaccination monitoring, training facilitations, preparation of micro plans, data and tally sheet analysis, and social mobilization. “The polio programme will severely be undermined if we are fired,” maintained the protestors, who had gathered under the aegis of the All Pakistan Union Council Polio Officers (UCPOs).

“We not only fought against polio but also supported the COVID-19 control team and played a vital role in creating awareness about the pandemic. We traced people traveling to Pakistan from foreign countries, helped isolate them, and followed up COVID-19 positive cases—both home-based and those in quarantine centers,” said a protestor.

Most of the UCPOs claimed an average experience of 6 to 10 years as WHO contractual staff. “Our joblessness will leave our families hungry, as we are now over-age and ineligible for any government job,” another protestor pointed out.

The All Pakistan UCPOs appealed to the WHO to halt the new transformational recruitment process being implemented; to rehire all educated, experienced and trained UCPOs; and to adjust them at their respective Union Councils till such time that polio is completely eradicated from Pakistan.