June 06, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 01, 1429

PESHAWAR, June 5: The much-trumpeted peace agreement between the Taliban and the provincial government faces litmus test during the coming special polio vaccination commencing on June 10.

Clause 9 of the peace accord signed on May 20 states that the Taliban will not hamper polio campaign and will rather support the drive. According to the agreement, the Taliban have to support campaigns of vaccination against different ailments.

Officials of the health department and donor organisations have pinned hopes on the Taliban in Swat, where vaccination has not been carried out for one year due to the stiff resistance of Maulana Fazlullah. Swat has an estimated 315,000 children under the age of five years.

“The success of the next polio campaign in the Swat district hinges on the practicability of the peace agreement. It will play a pivotal role in the campaign,” they said.

The officials hoped that the Taliban would honour the commitment to cooperate with vaccinating teams and ask the people, especially in Kabal, Matta, Imam Dheri and Alpuri areas, to get their children vaccinated.

They said those places had been ‘no-go areas’ for immunisation teams in the past.

They said the families of four children tested positive for polio in Mardan in the last week of 2007 had either migrated to the district from Swat due to lawlessness there or the local children had got the virus form the migrating Swatis.

Swat became the centre of attention last year when a 23-year-old student of the Melbourne University in Australia came to his native Punjab province and then visited Swat along with friends.

Upon his return, he showed some symptoms and was subsequently diagnosed positive for polio. Genetic sequencing had shown that the virus had originated from Swat.