It’s a never-ending story. Every few months the government strengths its resolve to rid the country of the polio virus once and for all. And then a new campaign starts, compete with tough talk, fanfare, and promises, only to fizzle out in a few days when volunteers or policemen guarding them are killed, often enough in broad daylight. Then the usual wave of condemnations lights up twitter as well as the headlines, and promises of polio-free society turn into promises of justice, etc, for the victims. And so this cycle repeats itself, and the only thing that changes is the names and faces of the people that get killed so mercilessly. Considering these trends it seems that we’re doomed to stay one of only two countries in the whole world – the other being Afghanistan – that have not yet been able to win the war on polio. The neighbour’s problems are far more understandable than ours. After all, it has seen little except endless war over at least the last half-century. We, on the other hand, are not only a nuclear power but also the self-professed Fort of Islam. Yet somewhere down the road we let enemies of our state brainwash most of our people into believing that polio drops were somehow anti-Islam or even that giving them to our children would render them impotent in one of the grandest schemes ever allegedly rolled out by the Americans. And it’s shameful that the state hasn’t yet been able to counter these narratives. Daily Times, along with a whole host of other platforms, has cried itself hoarse about the need for the government to erect an over-arching narrative of its own, complete with input from notable religious scholars of all backgrounds, to put all sorts of rumours to rest. Yet nothing happens to that effect. In such circumstances, where the state action, or lack thereof, visibly makes the difference between life and death for volunteers as well as people only doing their jobs, those in charge must be made to act or taken to task. *