Politicians vow full support to special anti-polio drive

PESHAWAR, April 2: Leaders of various political parties at a seminar on Saturday vowed to fully support the anti-polio campaign and play a collective role with other stakeholders to eradicate the fatal disease from the country. The seminar was organised by Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) cell, WHO and Unicef in collaboration with Peshawar Press Club here in connection with the awareness campaign. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Karamatullah Khan Chaghamatti was the chief guest, who formally launched the special immunisation campaign by administering polio drops to children. Deputy Director of the provincial Polio Eradication Initiative Dr Janbaz Afridi, former federal minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Hafiz Hashmat, PPP MPA Shazia Tamas, civil society activist Rakhshinda Naz, PTI leader Mohammad Zahid, Abdul Jalil Jan of JUI-F, and journalists Saiful Islam and Arshad Aziz Malik also expressed their views on polio eradication. Earlier, the organisers said that the special immunisation drive would be conducted from April 4 to 6 in the districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Peshawar, Chitral, Swat, Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Kohat, Hangu, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. They said that an estimated 2.9 million children in these districts would be vaccinated during the three-day campaign. Representative of the WHO, Unicef and National Disaster Response Force (NDRFD) also attended the ceremony besides children and parents. While inaugurating the drive, Mr Chaghamatti urged the media and political parties to play an effective role in creating awareness of the negative impacts of polio disease and persuade the parents to save their children from polio. He said that due to the increasing awareness, the polio cases were decreasing and very soon the disease would be eliminated from the country. Dr Janbaz said that people of Fata had suffered a lot due to lawlessness and now was the time to launch a fight against the poliovirus and wipe it out from the area. "Unless we vaccinate all the children under age five, the virus will continue to threaten disabling children, placing greater strain on families and adding pressure on national resources," he said. He said that polio was not just a health issue, but it also had implications for economic and social development. Shazia Tamas said that polio was highly infectious and incurable disease that could cause lifelong paralysis. She said that being a signatory to the resolution on polio eradication, Pakistan was committed to occupying space in the list of polio-free countries.