Fawad Khan ‘booked as wife refuses anti-polio drops to their daughter.’ What this news teaches us about Naya Pakistan
Polio is a deadly disease. And most of us in India — thanks to the extensive government campaigning — have grown up with this message being drilled into our heads.
In that, kudos to the people in charge.
Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan, on the other hand, are still countries that are plagued by this deadly disease. Under Pakistani law, anyone who refuses their children the government administered anti-polio drops can face jail time of up to two years, and/or a hefty fine.
Which is why the news of Fawad Khan being booked for refusing his daughter these drops comes as a shock to most of us.
Reportedly, Fawad’s wife, Sadaf Khan, not only refused to get administered polio drops to her minor daughter, but she also hurled threats at the polio team visiting their home in Faisal Town. According to the FIR, even the family driver misbehaved with the visiting team, shooing them off the premises, as it were.
"Khan's wife did not give any plausible reason for not getting her daughter administered polio drops. Either it is complete ignorance on the part of her or being a celebrity, showing no respect to the polio workers. This is highly condemnable behaviour of a celebrity family," Muhammad Jamil, a district official, was quoted saying in several reports.
Acting on a written complaint by the said visiting polio team, an FIR has been registered against Fawad Khan with the Lahore Police. Interestingly, Fawad was not even present in their Faisal Town home when this incident took place.
Fawad is currently in Dubai for the Pakistan Super League (PSL), but the FIR was registered against him anyway simply because — get this — he is the head of the family.
At this moment, neither Fawad nor, his wife, or their lawyers have responded to these reports, so whether the events actually played out the way it was reported is anybody’s guess. But it begs the question: Why file an FIR against Fawad, who isn’t even there, and wait for him to get back to Pakistan, and then arrest him or seek an explanation? Wouldn’t booking Sadaf have guaranteed faster action?
As per DC Lahore, teams wanted to immunise Fawad's daughter since yesterday. 1st his driver misbehaved with teams followed by his family. Mr. Fawad is our pride, I request him to allow teams to vaccinate the child. Lahore has had a polio case last week, we must protect the child. https://t.co/0L30OfLbMd
— Babar Atta (@babarbinatta) February 20, 2019
Spokesperson of the Prime Minister's Polio task force, Babar Bin Ata’s tweet — even as he humbly requests Fawad to cooperate and allow his daughter to be immunised — seems to completely overlook the fact that if vaccinating the child is the prime focus here, waiting for the actor to get back to Pakistani soil is only unnecessarily prolonging a process that could have been dealt with without so much hoopla.
And in all this, the one issue that still remains unresolved is that of the actual anti-polio drops.
Why on earth would you refuse your child that? Fawad and Sadaf Khan should have a lot of explaining to do. Once their kid gets do boond zindagi ke, as we call it in India.