PESHAWAR, Feb 4: The NWFP health department has asked the federal government to treat it separately from Fata in matters relating to the anti-polio campaign.

“We have asked the ministry of health, Islamabad, to treat the health departments of the NWFP and Fata as two separate entities as far the number of polio cases are concerned,” said a top health official.

According to him, last year the NWFP had recorded a total of eight polio cases, but officially it was put together with Fata, which had registered seven cases. So, he said, the record showed that the NWFP had 15 cases, which was incorrect.

Similarly, four cases of polio were reported from the Frontier province in 2005, but the record indicated that the province had five cases, he said, adding that one case had been reported from the Khyber Agency in Fata, which was also put in the account of the NWFP.

He said the NWFP health department had separate budget from Fata. Though the budgetary allocation to the Fata Health Directorate was made by the Frontier government, it was entirely a separate department.

He said Fata had got its own director of health and staff for every health programme.

The Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) had 400 staff members for Fata which is supposed to cover an area spread over 27,220 sq-km. The NWFP, on the other hand, had got separate health directorate and the EPI section which had the services of about 1,000 technicians.

He said it was really painful that the NWFP was ranked first among the polio-hit areas in the country in 2006 because of the inclusion of Fata cases to it. Had it been considered as a separate entity, its number would have been second after Balochistan.

Sources said that the NWFP and Fata were considered as one entity as far as the campaign against polio was concerned because the donor organisations were operating from the NWFP.

“Donors, such as WHO and Unicef, have their polio staff in Fata, but they work under the supervision of their main offices located in Peshawar,” said the sources, adding that the donor agencies organized training for the staff of the NWFP and Fata together due to which they were considered as one entity.

A WHO official, however, contradicted the NWFP government’s claim that Fata was considered as part of the NWFP. He said WHO had always treated both as separate entities.