Sindh Mulls Blocking SIMs and IDs of Parents Refusing Polio Vaccination

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah is considering punitive measures — including blocking mobile SIM cards, suspending CNICs and passports — for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against poliovirus.

Chairing a meeting on polio eradication at the CM House, Murad Ali Shah said such steps were being weighed as last-resort options to enforce public health responsibility.

“I have no other option but to penalise those who shirk their national duty of eradicating polio. This responsibility starts at home and affects the entire province and country,” he said.

He warned that refusal to vaccinate endangered not only individual children but also contributed to the spread of the virus across communities.

The chief minister directed Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah to submit a plan outlining mechanisms for blocking SIMs, CNICs and passports of vaccine refusers.

A dedicated Polio Vaccine Refusal Cell has also been set up at the CM House, which will receive union council–wise data of non-compliant parents and engage them through social, political and administrative channels.

Expressing concern over fresh polio detections, Murad Ali Shah instructed health and district officials to intensify efforts, cautioning that underperforming officers would be removed — as some already had been.

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Observing that most new cases emerged in border regions, he ordered upcoming vaccination campaigns to include nomadic communities in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions.

Sindh reported two additional cases last month, bringing its tally to nine. Nationwide, 29 cases have been recorded this year — 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine in Sindh, and one each in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.