Sharif says personally monitoring anti-polio campaign, getting fortnightly briefings
Says govt ensuring polio vaccination of international travelers in compliance with international health regulations
Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif said Wednesday that Pakistan is committed to eradicating polio virus and would fulfill all its international obligations in this regard. He added that any negligence by authorities responsible to curb the spread of polio shall be considered as “a crime against our future generations”.
“We shall not tolerate polio in Pakistan. We shall certainly defeat it,” said Sharif while chairing a special high-level meeting of the Steering Committee for the Eradication of Polio at the PM’s Office.
The meeting reviewed anti-polio measures and the future strategy to eradicate polio from the country and was attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) governor, chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, KP and Gilgit-Balitistan (GB), Azad Jammu Kashmir PM and heads of various international organisations.
The premier instructed the officials responsible to tackle the menace of polio “with the high degree of seriousness it deserves”. “Any laxity, negligence, inaction shall be a crime against our future generations. The future of our children is at stake and we must protect them at all costs,” the PM warned, adding that as the country’s PM, every Pakistani child is dear to him and is like his own child. “No one likes to see his own children disabled,” he said.
Sharif said that the federal government, armed forces and civil society stand united in the drive against polio.
“Pakistan shares the concerns of the international community on polio but it should also understand the challenges of the anti-polio drive in Pakistan.
“Front line health workers face ban, violence, inaccessibility owing to intricate cultural and tribal norms and terror activities which have hampered the government’s anti-polio drives,” adding that these globally unprecedented problems had contributed to the rise in the number of polio cases this year.
He said a military operation is successfully underway to flush out militants, adding, “There has been a breakthrough in the polio eradication campaign with children of South and North Waziristan agencies now being immunised.” Children of these areas were deprived of polio vaccination since 2012 but are now being vaccinated, said Sharif.
“We are also ensuring polio vaccination of international travelers in compliance with international health regulations,” he said, adding that every children within the country’s border and beyond should be vaccinated.
The premier said he is personally monitoring the anti-polio campaign and getting fortnightly briefings.
Earlier, chief ministers of the four provinces separately called on the PM in Islamabad to discuss matters of national interest, including the polio eradication programme.
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