New York Times eulogize Aziz Memon for highlighting Rotary's role in fight to end polio in Pakistan

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Aziz Memon, a leading entrepreneur and philanthropist, has been hailed by the Rotary International’s Headquarters in Chicago, USA, as well as by the New York Times for his efforts in the fight to end polio from Pakistan.

The popular figure of Aziz Memon, who heads Rotary International’s Pakistan National Polio Plus Committee, has been also been commended for his monumental efforts in mobilizing the resources to eradicate polio from the country. 

“You have done a great job of highlighting Rotary's role in the fight to end polio, and showcasing all of the hard work being done in Pakistan,” Petina Dixon-Jenkins wrote in a recent communication. 

“The country's new determination has also brought Rotary International back to the front lines. The club, founded in Chicago in 1905, started the global polio eradication drive in 1988. It has had chapters in what is now Pakistan since 1927, and is now led by Aziz Memon, a hard-driving textile magnate,” Donald McNeil reported in a recent article which appeared in the New York Times.

 “Mr Memon and other Rotary-affiliated executives have used their money and political connections to keep the pressure on. They compensated the killed vaccinators' relatives and held news conferences at which the families urged others to continue fighting,” McNeil wrote in his article about polio in Pakistan.

"In March, Aziz Memon hosted Dr Robert S Scott, the 79-year-old Canadian chairman of Rotary's polio committee, who flew in to vaccinate children to prove that the fight would go on despite the December killings," he added.

“About 90 percent comply, sometimes after a public argument between a father who believes the rumors and a mother, outside their home and at times backed by other women on the bus, insisting the children be protected,” the report mentioned.


Aziz Memon was quoted by the New York Times having opposed what he called coercive gimmicks. 

“We can't twist arms. We want to win them over with love and affection," he stressed.

"He takes pride in mentioning that among hundreds of men wearing turbans and topees at Karachi's main train station, the Rotary volunteers stand out out in their blue baseball cap with Rotary's bright yellow gearwheel," the New York Times report highlighted.

Aziz Memon, known and respected for working with missionary zeal, has had to overcome obstacles to achieve the cherished goal of eradicating polio from Pakistan. The road was mostly bumpy but he has never retreated.