ISLAMABAD: Even though the governments at the centre and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa agreed on Thursday to launch a joint inoculation campaign against nine major diseases — including polio — the much touted Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) that is supposed to be the nerve centre for all polio-related activities in the country, remained unaware of the decision.

However, to dispel the impression that they were caught unawares by the move, the PM’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq claimed that the initiative was “their idea”, even as officials from the EOC admitted that they were never consulted over the move.

Read: KP, Fata residents comprise 96pc of polio victims this year

Nearly 89 per cent of all polio cases in the country were recorded from parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and KP. This accounts for over 80 per cent of all polio cases reported worldwide.

Nearly 89pc of all polio cases were recorded in Fata and KP

An EOC official told Dawn that it was strange that even though the new ‘Sehat Ka Ittehad’ (Alliance for Health) campaign was a joint venture between the federal and KP governments, the EOC and the PM’s Polio Cell were completely unaware of it.

In addition, the official said the EOC, which has countrywide jurisdiction and reports to the PM’s focal person, was never taken into confidence over the planned campaign.

Also read| Pakistan responsible for 80pc polio cases: WHO

“In fact, everyone related to the polio programme at the federal level was stunned when TV channels started showing breaking news regarding an agreement between federal and provincial governments over polio vaccination,” he said.

“The name of the programme, ‘Sehat Ka Ittehad’, sounds too much like the PTI-led ‘Sehat Ka Insaf’, so the sudden announcement put us in an awkward position and we didn’t know whether to own it or disown it,” he said.

“We checked if Ms Farooq was participating in the meeting, but learnt that she was in Islamabad attending a polio-related event at a university,” he said.

Also read: Most victims of polio virus are Pakhtuns

“Later, we learnt that KP Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan represented the federal government in the Apex Committee meeting, held in Peshawar. The fact that the EOC was not involved shows that the government has no confidence in it,” he said.

A KP health official associated with the polio eradication programme told Dawn that ‘Sehat Ka Ittehad’ was a brainchild of PTI chief Imran Khan. Even though there are tensions with the federal government over electoral rigging, but health was a separate subject, he said.

“Sehat Ka Ittehad will commence on Feb 1 and end on May 1. As many as 12 one-day campaigns would be held in 12 weeks in 14 districts of KP and Fata. The army has assured all-out support and security for the campaigns,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Ayesha Raza Farooq told Dawn that the new campaign was her initiative and that even though she wanted to have a countrywide campaign, they had decided to concentrate on Fata and KP because that’s where most polio cases were reported last year.

She also said there was no need for her participation in the Apex Committee meeting and said that even the new ‘Sehat Ka Ittehad’ campaign would be run by the EOC.

However, asked about the details of the new programme, Ms Farooq said that she was not aware as they would be chalked out by the KP government.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2015

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