PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Shah Farman said on Thursday that the total expenditure of the Sehat Ka Insaf project was Rs124 million and the entire funding of the awareness campaign and additional operational expenses were paid for by the WHO and Unicef.

Talking to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers here, the minister said that the programme had been a tremendous success and the credit for this went to all those who participated in it.

Giving background of the Sehat Ka Insaf programme, he said that following failure of earlier polio programmes the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation had approached PTI chairman Imran Khan and requested him to take personal charge of the anti-polio campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The reality is that this programme has been lauded internationally while other provinces are now trying to replicate Sehat Ka Insaf.

This programme was negotiated and implemented transparently and even the international community appreciated it,” the minister said.

He said that Unicef itself selected a company for advertisement and other publicity campaigning and the PTI volunteers helped in functioning process of the programme.

The information minister said that with the population of 4 million people and as a main urban centre, Peshawar was a known transit hub where people in thousands move in and out making the city exposed to poliovirus.

“WHO reported Peshawar as the larger reservoir of poliovirus. Despite dangerously exposed to poliovirus there was no polio drops cover.

Our party strongly backed the initiative as PTI is determined to improve the health of the children of Peshawar and therefore introduced an integrated child health care package to safeguard our coming generation against vaccine-preventable childhood diseases,” he said.

Mr Farman said that Sehat Ka Insaf was aimed at building a stronger health system in Peshawar, bringing together immunisation, improved sanitation and nutrition and health services in order to stop transmission of poliovirus.

He reminded that Unicef did its own audit of all the money involved in the programme. The provincial government has pledged no funding for the programme, he concluded.