ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Independent Monitoring Board for Polio, which concluded in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, has called for the highest level of commitment by the federal government for eradication of the disease and said optimum performance of the emergency operation centre being set up for the purpose should be ensured.

Giving a presentation at the meeting, MNA Ayesha Raza, the Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio, said the government was committed to eradicating polio.

“Since June, two briefings have been given to the prime minister and one briefing has been held in a cabinet meeting chaired by him. The National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution for parliamentarians to participate in advocacy and tackling refusals in their constituencies,” she said.

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“The PC-1 to provide funds for polio eradication has been approved, so there will be no shortage of money till 2018. The UAE government is also supporting efforts being made through the military to eliminate polio virus from Fata and 11 neighbouring districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” she said.

Ms Raza said 91 per cent of the cases reported this year were from areas with barriers to immunisation.

She said a plan had been made to eradicate polio during the low transmission season by holding massive immunisation campaigns.

National Health Services Minister Saira Afzal Tarar informed the board that inter-ministerial committees would be formed at the federal and provincial levels to deal with the issue. An official said that the detailed report of the IMBP was expected to be released in about three weeks.

The meeting was presided over by Sir Liam Donaldson. The board works on behalf of international donor agencies and issues reports every six months about performance of the countries. In November 2012, it recommended travel restrictions on Pakistan that were implemented on May 5 this year.

On June 2, the IMB released its recommendations for Pakistan in which the Prime Minister’s Polio Cell was declared a ‘shadow boxing entity’. It recommended the setting up of an ‘emergency operation centre for polio’ before July 1. The centre has been inaugurated but is expected to become functional by mid-October.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014