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KARACHI: Pakistan has confirmed 19th polio case of this year after a 5-month-old child tested positive for the virus in the northwestern Lakki Marwat district, the country’s polio program said on Tuesday.

The latest infection marks the 12th polio case in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, which has long been identified as a high-risk zone for poliovirus transmission due to insecurity, vaccine hesitancy and operational challenges.

Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) for every child under five during each campaign, along with the timely completion of all essential immunizations.

“The continued detection of polio cases highlights the ongoing threat to children, especially in areas with low vaccine acceptance,” the polio program said. “It is crucial for communities to understand that repeated vaccination is essential to protect every child against poliovirus.”

Despite significant improvements in the quality of polio vaccination campaigns nationwide, the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remain a key area of concern due to restricted access, lack of female vaccinators and operational challenges in conducting house-to-house vaccination, according to the polio program.

“These barriers continue to hinder immunization efforts in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaving thousands of children unvaccinated,” it said. “Multiple doses are needed to build and maintain immunity. Every unvaccinated child remains at risk and may contribute to further transmission of the virus.”

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. Islamabad made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021, however, the country witnessed an intense resurgence of the poliovirus in 2024, with 74 cases reported.

Efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claim that immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage. Militant groups have frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, particularly in KP and Balochistan.

Health authorities will begin their next polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan on September 1, with a special focus on high-risk and priority areas including southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Parents and caregivers are strongly encouraged to ensure their children receive polio drops during this important campaign to help protect them from lifelong paralysis,” the polio program said.

KARACHI: Pakistani real estate magnate Malik Riaz Hussain said on Tuesday his property empire was on the verge of total shutdown, blaming a widening state crackdown over what is widely believed to be his links with jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.

Hussain — one of Pakistan’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen, best known as the chairman of Bahria Town Limited — has spoken publicly for months about being pressured due to “political motives” and facing financial losses as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) opens cases against his property development projects across Pakistan. While he has not explicitly named who was pressuring him or why, media and analysts widely speculate the crackdown relates to the Al-Qadir Trust case, which involves accusations Khan and his wife, during his premiership from 2018-2022, were given land by Hussain as a bribe in exchange for illegal favors. In January, a court sentenced Khan to 14 years imprisonment in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

In January, NAB said it had kickstarted the process of seeking the extradition from the UAE of Hussain in connection with the land bribe case. Hussain has been widely known for decades for his links with political parties, the media and the civil and military establishment, and has been considered ‘untouchable’ in the past.

In a post on social media platform X on Tuesday, the property tycoon said authorities had frozen Bahria Town’s bank accounts, seized vehicles and arrested dozens of employees, which had “paralyzed” the company’s operations and brought development work to a halt.

“The situation has reached a point where we are being forced to completely shut down all Bahria Town activities across Pakistan,” Hussain said. “We apologize to the residents and stakeholders of Bahria Town.”

In January, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the government would pursue Hussain’s return from the United Arab Emirates. The same month, NAB had put out a public notice cautioning people against investing in Hussain’s new real estate venture to build luxury apartments in Dubai:

“If the general public at large invests in the stated project, their actions would be tantamount to money laundering, for which they may face criminal and legal proceedings.”

Responding to NAB on X at the time, Hussain had said “fake cases, blackmailing and greed of officers” had forced him to relocate from the country because he was not willing to be a “political pawn.”

More recently, local media has reported that Hussain may have left the UAE for an unknown location to avoid extradition proceedings.

In his X post on Tuesday, Hussain appealed to state institutions to adopt a more conciliatory approach:

“I make a final appeal from the bottom of my heart for a chance to return to serious dialogue and a dignified resolution. For this purpose, we assure you of our full participation in any arbitration process and our commitment to implementing its decision 100 percent. I also assure you that if the arbitration decision requires payment of money from our side, we will ensure its payment.”

Bahria Town, founded in the late 1990s, is one of Pakistan’s largest private employers and a major developer of luxury housing schemes across the country. Over the years, the company has been the subject of multiple investigations over illegal land acquisitions and unauthorized development but has continued to operate.

AL-QADIR TRUST CASE

In 2019, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said Hussain had agreed to hand over 190 million pounds held in Britain to settle a UK investigation into whether the money was from the proceeds of crime.

The NCA said it had agreed to a settlement in which Hussain would hand over a property, 1 Hyde Park Place, valued at 50 million pounds, and cash frozen in British bank accounts.

The NCA had previously secured nine freezing orders covering 140 million pounds in the accounts on the grounds that the money may have been acquired illegally.

The agency said the assets would be passed to the government of Pakistan and the settlement with Hussain was “a civil matter, and does not represent a finding of guilt.”

The case made against Hussain and ex-PM Khan was that instead of putting the tycoon’s settlement money in Pakistan’s treasury, Khan’s government used the money to pay fines levied by a court against Hussain for illegal acquisition of government lands at below-market value for development in Karachi.

Hussain, who hasn’t appeared before an anti-graft agency to submit his reply to summons issued to him, has denied any wrongdoing. Khan and his wife have also pleaded innocence.