PESHAWAR: The Peshawar district administration started an anti-polio drive in the provincial metropolis on Saturday.

The polio cell in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said the drive would continue from 8am to 5pm where some 4,200 teams of health workers and volunteers would administer anti-polio drops to children.

The government has set a target to vaccinate 754,000 children below five years of age in the 97 union councils of Peshawar district to save them from the fatal disease. Supervisors would monitor the workers to ensure vaccination of the children

The district administration had yesterday placed a ban on motorcycle riding to avoid any untoward incident during the anti-polio drive.

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Peshawar deputy commissioner Syed Zaheerul Islam had imposed the ban under Section 144 and warned that those found violating the law would have to face action under Section 188 of Pakistan Penal Code.

The menace of polio virus persists in Pakistan with militant groups seeing vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage.

Pakistan carries a huge burden of more than 171 polio cases, most of which have been recorded from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and KP.

Officials fear the pace with which polio cases are on the rise, the current year could surpass the decade’s highest (198 cases) recorded in 2011.

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