KARACHI: Pakistan has detected the first-ever polio virus case in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, bringing this year’s tally to 11 cases, the polio eradication program said on Monday.

Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of 5 are essential to provide children high immunity against the disease.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains endemic. The country reported 74 polio cases in 2024.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed a new case of wild poliovirus in District Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan,” the polio eradication program said in a statement.

“This is the first case of wild poliovirus reported from Gilgit-Baltistan and the eleventh confirmed case in Pakistan this year.”

Pakistan concluded a nationwide polio vaccination campaign on June 1. The drive had aimed to inoculate 45 million children under the age of five across 159 districts of the country.

In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 polio cases annually. By 2018, that number had dropped to just eight. In 2021, only one case was reported, and six cases were recorded in 2023.

Pakistan’s polio eradication program began in 1994, but efforts have been repeatedly undermined by misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners. These groups claim that immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage.

Militant groups have also frequently attacked polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them.

Last week, a Pakistani police officer was killed when gunmen opened fire on a team of health workers conducting a door-to-door polio vaccination campaign in the southwestern Balochistan province.

SUJAWAL, Sindh: Holding a battery in one hand and an LED light in the other, Abdul Ghani waded through the salty waters of the Arabian Sea to reach his small wooden boat. 

It was just past sunset, the sky dimming fast, but Ghani had no fear as he had light.

Ghani is one of hundreds of Pakistani coastal residents who have benefited from a green energy initiative under the World Bank-backed Sindh Solar Energy Project (SSEP), a multi-component program that aims to bring sustainable power to over 1.2 million of the southern province’s poorest and most energy-deprived people.

While torches don’t offer adequate visibility in the vast seascape, and boat generators scare fish away when powered on, the battery-powered LED lights from the home energy system have proven to be an unexpected boon for nighttime fishing for residents like Ghani. 

“Earlier, I couldn’t catch any fish, but now when I go fishing using these lights, by the grace of God, I catch good fish,” the 45-year-old fisherman from Karo Chan, a coastal village in Sujawal district located in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, told Arab News. 

“This helps me support my children and manage our livelihood.”

The project targets people either without any electricity or facing power cuts, identified through Pakistan’s national poverty scorecard, a data-driven assessment tool used to identify and prioritize assistance for low-income households.

“Each family has a solar system with fans, three LED light bulbs, mobile charging facility, along with a charge controller and a battery package,” Mehfooz Ahmed Qazi, the project director, told Arab News. 

“All these cost Rs6,000 ($21), ten percent of the actual price, to instill a sense of ownership in the users.”

Qazi said the project, launched in October 2019 and set to be completed in July 2025, had four components: a 400-megawatt solar power initiative for grid integration, rooftop solar systems for public sector buildings including 34 district headquarter hospitals, off-grid solar home systems for poor households and the establishment of solar equipment standardization laboratories at NED University in Karachi and Mehran University in Jamshoro.

The key objective of the project is to promote the potential of green energy across the province. 

Out of the 400 megawatts planned for grid integration, 270 megawatts will be added to the system of K-Electric — serving over 3.4 million customers in Karachi and surrounding areas in Sindh and Balochistan — not only increasing the share of green power but also helping reduce electricity tariffs for residents of Karachi.

By the end of the project, 34 megawatts of rooftop solar installations will be set up on buildings across the province, while 200,000 solar home systems will be distributed, benefiting 1.2 million families. 

Of these, 50,000 families in five coastal districts, including Sujawal, will receive solar home systems under the third component of the project that started in February this year.

For families like Ghani’s, the change has been immediate and life changing.

“I turn on three lights,” he explained. “When we turn on the lights, small fish come. Seeing the small fish, the big ones also come. Where I place my net, both big and small fish come into it.”

Ghani also uses the system at home once he returns from the sea.

His wife, Kulsoom, said life, was once defined by heat, insects and fear of the dark, had now changed. 

“Previously, there used to be complete darkness,” she said. “The children would be distressed. We didn’t even have a fan. It used to be extremely hot, and we would suffer.”

Like many women in rural Sindh, Kulsoom’s day revolves around managing the household and caring for her children. Now, her nights are more peaceful.

“Now that we have solar [system], we are very happy, and the children sleep peacefully,” she said.

“COMPLETE DARKNESS“

In village Qaboolpur in the nearby Tando Muhammad Khan district, Naeema Gul, 47, had similar story. 

Her husband, Gul Bahar, is deaf and mute. They have six children, one of whom has polio.

“We didn’t have electricity,” Gul said. “We used hand fans. It would get extremely hot, and there were always mosquitoes … Now, thank God, we have received solar energy. Earlier, our home used to be in complete darkness. Now we have light.”

Gul uses the fan provided with the solar system during peak summer heat, and the LED lights allow her to do embroidery on traditional ralli quilts, colorful patchwork textiles made by rural women in the province. She also uses the light to recite the Holy Qur’an at night.

Her disabled son, Gulzar, a fifth grader, has also resumed his studies.

“After receiving the solar panel, I can study and write with ease,” he said.

For women like Changi Rind, a widow with 10 children and dozens of grandchildren living in remote Jan Muhammad Jatt village of Sujawal, the biggest relief has been security.

“Previously, thieves used to come, but now, because of the light, they stay away,” she said. “At night, one person had to stay awake. There was no light in the wilderness, only darkness.”

Back in Karo Chan, as night fell, Ghani’s returned on his boat with a modest catch, unpacked the system and handed it over to Kulsoom.

With a fan whirring in the corner and her children sitting under LED lights, she reflected on how far the community had come:

“Where there was once darkness, solar [system] has brought light to our home and our lives as well.”