PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Friday launched an anti-polio campaign (Sehat Ka Ittehad) for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

According to a handout issued here, the campaign will be carried out in 12 high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two Frontier Regions and three tribal agencies simultaneously.

It will focus on the children displaced from tribal areas, particularly North Waziristan Agency, where the local Taliban militants had banned vaccination against polio.

Speaker of the provincial assembly Asad Qaisar, provincial ministers Shahram Tarakai, Mohammad Atif and Inayatullah and representatives of the World Health Organisation and Unicef attended the ceremony, which was organised at the Police Hospital.

Imran Khan told reporters that the campaign was vital for the eradication of polio from the whole country.

He said the campaign was a joint venture of the provincial and federal governments and that despite political differences, both governments were on the same page against polio and were fully committed to making the campaign a success story.

Says federal, KP governments united against polio despite political differences

“Polio is an issue of the future of our young generation. We will make no political point scoring or compromise on the future of our children and rather will work together to effectively address the issue,” he said.

The PTI chairman said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had the full support of the provincial governor and Army to make the campaign a ‘real success’ and achieve targets.

He said polio was a matter of grave concern for the whole country and that if it was not controlled in time, the country’s manpower would face great hardships in going abroad to earn livelihood.

Imran Khan said the Sehat Ka Insaf was a successful and internationally acknowledged programme but it was restricted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa only.

He said polio could not be fully eradicated in the province due to its close proximity to Fata and frequent visits of tribal people to its settled areas, especially those of IDPs.

“That is why this time around, Sehat Ka Ittehad is being carried out in the settled and tribal areas simultaneously,” he said.

On the occasion, the relevant officials said the Sehat Ka Ittehad campaign would continue until the middle of May this year with seven rounds of anti-polio vaccination.

They said the campaign would be carried out in twelve districts of the province,

including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Kohat, Karak, Hangu, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank as well as three Fata agencies, including Khyber, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

The officials said a total of 3.36 million children under the age of five years would be vaccinated against polio during the campaign.

They said besides polio vaccination, arrangements had also been made for the control of nine other diseases like measles and diarrhea.

Published in Dawn February 14th , 2015

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