Dawn Editorials 23rd September 2025

Polio mountain

THE world’s battle against polio is stuck on a glass mountain. After 37 years and $22bn, the Independent Monitoring Board has declared that conventional strategies are running out of road.

Its latest assessment, The Glass Mountain, places Pakistan centre stage. The country has reported 27 new cases this year — small in absolute terms, but large enough to confirm what the IMB calls “resurgence” in one of the last reservoirs of wild poliovirus.

The board’s findings are uncomfortable. It argues that Pakistan’s claims that transmission had been interrupted between 2021 and 2023 were an illusion created by Covid-19 restrictions. Lockdowns, not stronger campaigns, suppressed spread. That temporary reprieve has ended. With new infections surfacing, confidence in the programme’s direction is ebbing.

Eradication in Pakistan has long suffered from predictable failings: financing that rewards effort rather than outcomes, superficial ties to routine immunisation, accountability systems that churn out reports instead of penalties, and an unhealthy reliance on donor-driven firefighting rather than sustained domestic leadership. The result is a system skilled at producing plans and press releases but unable to guarantee that every child is immunised. District managers often recycle excuses, while politicians offer rhetorical commitment without following through on resources or enforcement.

The IMB now proposes shifting responsibility for eradication from Geneva to the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office. That change is intended to blunt the corrosive perception that polio eradication is a Western agenda imposed from outside. It may also force local politicians to accept ownership. For years, community hostility — stoked by conspiracy theories, mistrust of outsiders and repeated security lapses — has translated into refusals, boycotts and, tragically, killings of vaccinators.

Recasting the campaign as a regional priority could help repair that legitimacy gap. But the harder work lies at home. Pakistan’s federal and provincial authorities must treat polio not as an externally funded programme but as a national test of competence.

Chronic under-performance in high-risk districts cannot be indulged indefinitely. Integration with wider health services is overdue: routine immunisation and primary care should be the foundation, not an afterthought. Surveillance, meanwhile, needs sharper focus; environmental samples show far more virus in circulation than case counts suggest, signalling invisible chains of transmission that remain unbroken.

Eradication is not impossible. The coming low-transmission season offers an opening, but only if old habits are abandoned. More money and foreign technical help will not suffice. What is needed is innovation, political will and the readiness to hold failures accountable. A virus that once terrified the globe survives here still. Whether it is eliminated or allowed to endure will depend less on donors’ dollars and more on Pakistan’s resolve to climb its own glass mountain.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2025

Belated recognition

IT may have come 37 years too late — the Palestinians declared independence in 1988 — but the recognition of the State of Palestine by the UK, Australia and Canada on Sunday is a significant move nonetheless. These three states are key members of the Western bloc that has steadfastly supported Israel over the decades, including over the past two years, as Tel Aviv has pounded the people of Gaza. Perhaps it is guilt over inaction to stop the genocide, as well as complicity in Israel’s crimes, that has led these states to take the decision. However, though it may have been delayed by several decades, they have done the right thing, particularly the UK, which has a historical responsibility for what is going on in the occupied territories. Members of the Western bloc are, in fact, part of a minority; over 140 out of 193 UN members already recognise Palestine, and more, including France, are scheduled to do so. The only outliers that continue to deny Palestinian statehood include the US, some European states, Japan and South Korea, as well as a handful of Pacific island nations.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Western recognition of Palestine is a “reward for terrorism”. This is untrue. It is, in fact, a recognition of the historical injustices done to the Palestinians. Imperial Britain, for example, issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917; this atrocious document triggered the Nakba and laid the foundation for the birth of Israel in 1948. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he took the step to help revive the two-state solution. Mr Starmer’s enthusiasm may be misplaced, as the Israelis have asserted that they will do all possible to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, including annexing the West Bank. So, recognition is not enough. The world community, including the Western states that have recognised Palestine, must take immediate steps to halt the genocide in Gaza. This should include a total arms and economic embargo on Israel until it agrees to an unconditional ceasefire. Moreover, Tel Aviv must be told that if it continues the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and annexes the West Bank, there will be punitive consequences. Until credible steps are taken to stop the butchery in Gaza and make Israel commit to the two-state solution, recognition and statements of condemnation will not amount to much.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2025

Better but not enough

PAKISTAN showed some improvement but not enough to change the result for Salman Ali Agha’s men. This time, a week on from a seven-wicket loss to India where the lack of handshakes became the major talking point, Pakistan fell by six wickets — their woeful Twenty20 record against their arch-rivals now reading just three victories in 15 matches. That statistic has led to some tall claims by commentators and Indian players, with skipper Suryakumar Yadav stating that a ‘rivalry’ with Pakistan no longer existed. Before Sunday’s Asia Cup Super-Four clash, he had said that it was time for his side to ‘entertain’. India is perhaps forgetting the fact that it trails Pakistan in its head-to-head record in the two other formats of the game — Tests and One-day Internationals. It is also worth recalling that rivalries carry the weight of history and cannot be defined by eras. This era definitely belongs to India and it showed in Dubai, where Pakistan — despite showing more prowess with the bat — were playing catch-up.

Pakistan’s batters showed improvement in the early stages but familiar failings in the middle overs obstructed their hopes of making a bigger total — 171-5, though, was still more than 127-9 from their previous game, offering the bowlers something to defend. However, India’s batters took them apart from the start and the game was as good as over midway through their innings. Pakistan did get back but it was too little, too late. Salman stated afterwards that they needed to be perfect in every department to win. That is the bar that India have set and that is the bar Pakistan should strive to achieve. There were some positive signs that Pakistan should build on. Moreover, Pakistan still remain in the running to make the Asia Cup final. Winning their next two matches will take them there and perhaps give them a chance to show India that the rivalry is not done yet.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2025