ISLAMABAD, Aug 21: Pakistan has made tremendous progress in eradicating the crippling disease, Polio and is on the brink of reaching the goal of complete elimination with zero polio cases by the year 2003.

This was stated by minister for health, Dr Abdul Malik Kansi at a gathering organized by the health ministry and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) to welcome popular pop singer Jawad Ahmed, who has joined the cause of polio eradication in the country as an ambassador for a polio-free Pakistan.

The minister said by taking the initiative of implementing a country-wide anti-polio drive for the past many years, the ministry and its partners like Unicef, Rotary International, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), USAID and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are making it possible for Pakistan to achieve the goal of zero polio cases.

“The most powerful tool of communications, media, must play its due role in the drive against polio as more and more people could be reached through this medium,” the minister said.

He contended that one of the most important aspects of the disease eradication was to emphasis on the preventive side.

“We should also invest in the primary healthcare sector and stress on prevention of diseases like polio to make the world a polio-free place,” he added.

Unicef representative Carroll Long appreciating the role of media in the anti-polio drive, said media should also focus on social mobilization and the parents should be their main target in this regard. “If the parents do not take their children to the polio-vaccination centres, it would be hard to eradicate the disease”.

“We should appeal to the parents through the media and people like Jawad, who are more popular among them, and they will definitely listen to the celebrities and act to minimize the occurrence of the crippling disease,” Ms Long said.

If polio was successfully eradicated from Pakistan, “We are confident that our experience here would help us greatly to eliminate the disease in other areas of the world”.

The World Health Organization’s representative in Pakistan, Dr Khalif Bile Mohamud, said: “We are still far away from celebrations regarding the polio-eradication in the country, but at the same time the health ministry’s efforts should be appreciated as it is the most important partner of the drive against the disease. The other partners play supporting role in the campaign”. He reiterated that the immunization drive would not end until everyone was safe from polio. “We also need to enlarge the partnership and the ministry of health is engaging its 70,000 health workers to help achieve the target of zero polio cases in the country,” he added.