Pakistan opposition rejects budget 2024-2025, disputes key figures

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s state media recently announced that over 45 million children were vaccinated against polio in the first countrywide national immunization campaign of the year conducted from Feb. 3-9, as Islamabad attempts to put a stop to rising cases of the infection. 

Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure and to ensure immunity, health experts say it is crucial that all children under five complete the oral polio vaccine series. The South Asian country last year reported 73 polio cases in 2024, a sharp increase from just six cases in 2023. 

The Pakistan polio program runs several mass vaccination drives annually. This year’s first anti-polio drive was conducted from Feb. 3 to 9. On Jan. 22, the country reported its first case of the disease in 2025 in the Dera Ismail Khan district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“The Ministry of Health said more than 45 million children have been vaccinated during the National Polio Immunization Campaign,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.

“During this polio campaign, more than 400,000 trained polio workers visited door to door to perform their services.”

Dr. Mukhtar Bharath, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Coordinator for Health, said it is a “national and moral” responsibility of parents to get their children under the age of five vaccinated against polio.

He said the complete eradication of polio was the government’s top priority, highlighting that the “war against polio” was being fought with “full force and consistency.”

Bharath said measures were being strengthened to improve polio immunization campaigns across the country.

Of the 73 cases recorded last year, 27 were from southwestern Balochistan, 22 from northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 22 from southern Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries where polio remains endemic. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. 

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994, but efforts to eradicate the virus have been hampered by vaccine misinformation, opposition from some religious hard-liners who view immunization as a foreign plot, and frequent attacks on polio vaccination teams by militant groups.

ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of lawyers are protesting on Islamabad’s streets today, Monday, against controversial constitutional amendments that they say are aimed at undermining the judiciary and the recent transfer of three high court judges to the Islamabad High Court (IHC). 

Pakistan’s ruling coalition government passed the contentious 26th constitutional amendment bill from both houses of parliament in October 2024, amid stiff resistance from opposition parties and Pakistani lawyers. The amendments empower a parliamentary committee to appoint the Supreme Court’s chief justice for a fixed term of three years, and call for the creation of new group of senior judges to weigh exclusively on constitutional issues. The government says the amendments are aimed at providing speedy justice to citizens and it is parliament’s right to pass laws it deems fit to ensure its sovereignty. 

The protests are taking place as the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) is expected to meet on Monday to consider the elevation of eight high court judges to the Supreme Court. Four Supreme Court judges on Friday wrote to Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, who is also the chair of the JCP, to postpone the meeting and not decide on new judicial appointments until a challenge to the controversial amendments is decided one way or the other. 

The lawyers are also protesting against President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent move to transfer three judges from the Sindh, Balochistan and Lahore high courts to the Islamabad High Court (IHC), alleging that the move is unconstitutional as it undermines the seniority of the judges already serving in the IHC. 

“Our job is very clear and it is that we have to participate in this [protest] and present our stance,” Barrister Ali Zafar, a prominent lawyer, told reporters at Islamabad’s Red Zone area.

Zafar acknowledged that some lawyers were in favor of the judicial transfers and the constitutional amendments, acknowledging that a “division” existed among them. 

“There is definitely a division among lawyers, some are on this side and some are on that side,” he said. “But you will see that this movement will keep on growing.”

Footage on social media showed lawyers chanting slogans against the government and demanding independence of the judiciary. Local media reported deployment of heavy police contingent within the Supreme Court’s premises while entry points to the Red Zone, which houses the highest executive, judicial and legislative authority buildings of the country, were sealed to keep the lawyers away. 

Local media also reported that Serena Chowk, Nadra Chowk and Express Chowk areas were sealed to prevent lawyers from arriving at the iconic D-Chowk venue to register their protest. 

Meanwhile, Islamabad Police took to social media account X to assure residents it would ensure their protection despite the protests. 

“Islamabad Police is actively working to ensure your safety and to ensure the establishment of law and order throughout the district,” police wrote on X.