October 13, 2014
By ISMAIL DILAWAR
KARACHI: Pakistan eventually has become a country most affected in the world by the crippling disease of polio despite the fact that a number of high profile national and international Islamic scholars and institutions, representing different schools of thought, have issued almost two dozens “fatwas” in favour of polio vaccination facing resistance in the terrorism-hit predominantly Muslim country.
Also included in these religious decrees are the views of what the clergies acknowledge “pious” physicians who not only declare polio vaccination as harmless for health but strongly advise that children, below five, must be administered two drops of polio vaccine during immunization
campaigns.
Resistance against polio vaccination is deepening thus making the incurable disease endemic in Pakistan which, according to health officials, would break its own record of reporting the highest number of polio cases by the end of this calendar year.
Official figures show that by Oct 1st the number of polio cases reported from across Pakistan stood at 188, of which 165 victims hail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from Baluchistan, two from Punjab and 17 from Sindh.
“It may go up to 250 (cases),” a polio surveillance officer at WHO said, requesting anonymity.
Besides other factors, setbacks like Dr Shakil Afridi’s alleged use of an immunisation campaign to detect, successfully, al-Qaeda chief Usama bin Laden in Abbotabad in May 2011, the critics say, worsened the security situation in Pakistan for polio vaccinators.
Sky is the limit when it comes to conspiracy theories doing the rounds regarding polio campaign in the local anti-West conservative society. More rigid are the inhabitants of militants-infested tribal areas where the GoP is carrying out a military operation to root out terrorist networks.
Of the total 188, at least 33 polio cases have been reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
"Religious misconceptions is the main reason," the WHO official told Pakistan Today.
To address what Deputy Commissioner Malir Jan Muhammad Qazi said religio-medicinal concerns of the masses, the government had prepared a small booklet of "fatwas" titling “Polio Eradication Campaign and Endorsement by Muslim Scholars”.
The booklet contains stamped religious decrees of clerics from Ahle-Hadith, Deobandi, Barelvi and Shiite sects. Plus the endorsements of "pious" Muslim physicians whose observation stands acceptable to every one.
The Muslim institutions having issued "fatwas" in support of polio vaccination include the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Imam of Aqsa Mosque of Baitul Muqaddas, Ministry of Justice of Egypt, Islamic Ideology Council and Wafaqul Madaris, Jamia Rehmania Ahle Hadees of Multan, scholars of North Waziristan, Mufti Shahbuddin Popalzai of Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in Peshawar, Darul Uloom Deoband Uttar Pardesh (India), Darul Uloom Qadria of Dera Ismail Khan, Musbahul Uloom Al-Jafria, Darul Uloom Arabia, Mazharul Uloom of KPK, Jamiatul Binoria al Alamia of Karachi, Al-Jamiatul Islamia of Balochistan, Al-Jamiatul Arabia of Karachi, Darul Afta Jamia Islamia Arabia Anwarul Uloom, Jamia Khairul Madaris, Jamia Darul Uloom Obaidia Rehmania, Jamia Darul Uloom Baldia Town of Karachi, Darul Uloom Karachi, Jamiatul Binoria Al-Alamia Karachi, Dar-ut-Tafseer Jamiatul Arabia Peshawar, Darul Afta Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi and other religious scholars.
The religious scholars in the above institutions have stressed the need for vaccinating children against polio warning Muslims against heeding to "negative propaganda" against the same.
"We the scholars of North Waziristan, in the light of suggestions given by professional and scrupulous doctors and the supportive views of high profile religious scholars, advise the parents in North Waziristan to get their children vaccinated against polio," decreed jointly by clerics at Darul Uloom Ashrafia, Darul Afta Darul Uloom Nizamia and scholars from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam of Meeram Shah.
"In our view, polio drops are beneficial for children," stated in a joint decree Maulana Muhammad Hanif Jalindhry of Wafakul Madaris, Mufti Muhammad Ibrahim Qadri of Islamic Ideology Council of Pakistan, Allama Syed Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi of Jamia Imam Khumeni (Mianwali), Allama Zubair Ahmed Zaheer of Jamiat Ahle-Hadees Pakistan and others.
"Some people without having proper knowledge are heeding to rumours and are refusing (polio) vaccination. That is deplorable," said Head of Karachi's Binoria University International Mufti Naeem.
Some resisters reject these "fatwas" arguing that the issuers are religious scholars and not physicians. Keeping this in mind the clerics at Jamia Kharul Madaris of Multan referred Dr Imtiaz Elahi and Dr Javed Hasan, district officer and executive district officer health of Multan, to seek the opinion of a learned but "pious" physician when the government officers reached the seminary for a "fatwa".
"This (vaccine) is a nice medicine to avoid a dangerous disease and contains nothing which is un-Islamic or harmful for health," the seminary finally quoted the mutually-agreed health specialist Doctor Noor Ahmed Noor, former professor of medicine at Nishtar College of Multan.
Hafiz Muhammad Nasrullah of Jamia Rehmani Ahle Hadees (Multan), in a decree said to have taken the views of Dr M Ishaq and Dr Hafeezullah Khan, both Ahle Hadees scholars. "If doctors don't find anything Haram in this vaccine we would have to trust them," says the cleric.
But even such clear religious decrees, the WHO official lamented, were not proving effective. "Besides accessibility problems, illiteracy is the major stumbling block for these Fatwas," he said.
"Most of the people can't read these booklets that renders these fatwas completely useless," the official opined.
On the other hand, he warned, the number of refusals was increasing in the cosmopolitan cities like Karachi which houses 16 of total 17 poliovictims reported from Sindh province.
Upset by ongoing political hustle and bustle and haunted by more possible stringent international sanctions, the GoP has devised, what the WHO official said, an emergency plan to be executed during next six months to effectively deal with the fast spreading disease.
Without divulging details, the official said the plan would remain in place till June next year.
By ISMAIL DILAWAR
KARACHI: Pakistan eventually has become a country most affected in the world by the crippling disease of polio despite the fact that a number of high profile national and international Islamic scholars and institutions, representing different schools of thought, have issued almost two dozens “fatwas” in favour of polio vaccination facing resistance in the terrorism-hit predominantly Muslim country.
Also included in these religious decrees are the views of what the clergies acknowledge “pious” physicians who not only declare polio vaccination as harmless for health but strongly advise that children, below five, must be administered two drops of polio vaccine during immunization
Resistance against polio vaccination is deepening thus making the incurable disease endemic in Pakistan which, according to health officials, would break its own record of reporting the highest number of polio cases by the end of this calendar year.
Official figures show that by Oct 1st the number of polio cases reported from across Pakistan stood at 188, of which 165 victims hail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from Baluchistan, two from Punjab and 17 from Sindh.
“It may go up to 250 (cases),” a polio surveillance officer at WHO said, requesting anonymity.
Besides other factors, setbacks like Dr Shakil Afridi’s alleged use of an immunisation campaign to detect, successfully, al-Qaeda chief Usama bin Laden in Abbotabad in May 2011, the critics say, worsened the security situation in Pakistan for polio vaccinators.
Sky is the limit when it comes to conspiracy theories doing the rounds regarding polio campaign in the local anti-West conservative society. More rigid are the inhabitants of militants-infested tribal areas where the GoP is carrying out a military operation to root out terrorist networks.
Of the total 188, at least 33 polio cases have been reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
"Religious misconceptions is the main reason," the WHO official told Pakistan Today.
To address what Deputy Commissioner Malir Jan Muhammad Qazi said religio-medicinal concerns of the masses, the government had prepared a small booklet of "fatwas" titling “Polio Eradication Campaign and Endorsement by Muslim Scholars”.
The booklet contains stamped religious decrees of clerics from Ahle-Hadith, Deobandi, Barelvi and Shiite sects. Plus the endorsements of "pious" Muslim physicians whose observation stands acceptable to every one.
The Muslim institutions having issued "fatwas" in support of polio vaccination include the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Imam of Aqsa Mosque of Baitul Muqaddas, Ministry of Justice of Egypt, Islamic Ideology Council and Wafaqul Madaris, Jamia Rehmania Ahle Hadees of Multan, scholars of North Waziristan, Mufti Shahbuddin Popalzai of Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in Peshawar, Darul Uloom Deoband Uttar Pardesh (India), Darul Uloom Qadria of Dera Ismail Khan, Musbahul Uloom Al-Jafria, Darul Uloom Arabia, Mazharul Uloom of KPK, Jamiatul Binoria al Alamia of Karachi, Al-Jamiatul Islamia of Balochistan, Al-Jamiatul Arabia of Karachi, Darul Afta Jamia Islamia Arabia Anwarul Uloom, Jamia Khairul Madaris, Jamia Darul Uloom Obaidia Rehmania, Jamia Darul Uloom Baldia Town of Karachi, Darul Uloom Karachi, Jamiatul Binoria Al-Alamia Karachi, Dar-ut-Tafseer Jamiatul Arabia Peshawar, Darul Afta Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi and other religious scholars.
The religious scholars in the above institutions have stressed the need for vaccinating children against polio warning Muslims against heeding to "negative propaganda" against the same.
"We the scholars of North Waziristan, in the light of suggestions given by professional and scrupulous doctors and the supportive views of high profile religious scholars, advise the parents in North Waziristan to get their children vaccinated against polio," decreed jointly by clerics at Darul Uloom Ashrafia, Darul Afta Darul Uloom Nizamia and scholars from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam of Meeram Shah.
"In our view, polio drops are beneficial for children," stated in a joint decree Maulana Muhammad Hanif Jalindhry of Wafakul Madaris, Mufti Muhammad Ibrahim Qadri of Islamic Ideology Council of Pakistan, Allama Syed Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi of Jamia Imam Khumeni (Mianwali), Allama Zubair Ahmed Zaheer of Jamiat Ahle-Hadees Pakistan and others.
"Some people without having proper knowledge are heeding to rumours and are refusing (polio) vaccination. That is deplorable," said Head of Karachi's Binoria University International Mufti Naeem.
Some resisters reject these "fatwas" arguing that the issuers are religious scholars and not physicians. Keeping this in mind the clerics at Jamia Kharul Madaris of Multan referred Dr Imtiaz Elahi and Dr Javed Hasan, district officer and executive district officer health of Multan, to seek the opinion of a learned but "pious" physician when the government officers reached the seminary for a "fatwa".
"This (vaccine) is a nice medicine to avoid a dangerous disease and contains nothing which is un-Islamic or harmful for health," the seminary finally quoted the mutually-agreed health specialist Doctor Noor Ahmed Noor, former professor of medicine at Nishtar College of Multan.
Hafiz Muhammad Nasrullah of Jamia Rehmani Ahle Hadees (Multan), in a decree said to have taken the views of Dr M Ishaq and Dr Hafeezullah Khan, both Ahle Hadees scholars. "If doctors don't find anything Haram in this vaccine we would have to trust them," says the cleric.
But even such clear religious decrees, the WHO official lamented, were not proving effective. "Besides accessibility problems, illiteracy is the major stumbling block for these Fatwas," he said.
"Most of the people can't read these booklets that renders these fatwas completely useless," the official opined.
On the other hand, he warned, the number of refusals was increasing in the cosmopolitan cities like Karachi which houses 16 of total 17 poliovictims reported from Sindh province.
Upset by ongoing political hustle and bustle and haunted by more possible stringent international sanctions, the GoP has devised, what the WHO official said, an emergency plan to be executed during next six months to effectively deal with the fast spreading disease.
Without divulging details, the official said the plan would remain in place till June next year.
