One of Pakistan's most influential clerics has renounced his support for polio immunisation, claiming that the programme is a cover for American spies.
One of Pakistan's most influential clerics has renounced his support for polio immunisation, claiming that the programme is a cover for American spies.
Sami ul-Haq, nicknamed the Father of the Taliban for his role in educating many of the Afghan students who rose up to capture Kabul in the 1990s, offered foreign governments a chilling ultimatum: end American drone strikes or leave children unprotected.
He had been an unlikely ally of the World Health Organisation and Unicef. Earlier this year Haq administered polio drops to his grandson and urged followers to do the same.
But now he says he cannot back the policy after it emerged that the CIA had used a fake hepatitis drive to hunt for Osama bin Laden last year.
Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who organised the vaccination campaign, has been sentenced to 33 years in prison and his actions caused a wave of paranoia about foreign aid workers.
"The moral behind imposing a ban on the vaccination is not about whether it is un-Islamic or not, but the moral comes from the case of Shakil Afridi," Haq told The Daily Telegraph. "The people who are involved in this campaign, many agencies are involved, and they are using it for their other causes."
Pakistan is one of three countries where the disease remains endemic. Only 22 cases have been reported this year - compared with 59 in the same period in 2011 - and hopes were high that it could soon be declared polio free.
However, hard-line clerics have long opposed what they suspect is a Western conspiracy against Muslims. As a result health workers carefully cultivated moderate leaders, who issued fatwas - or religious rulings - declaring vaccination to be in line with Islamic teaching.
But Haq said that it made no sense for foreign agencies to keep children free from disease while bombing Pakistan.
"If you people are that much curious about the health of people living over there, it means that you are keeping these people alive just to kill them by drones," he said.
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