PESHAWAR, Aug 23: Federal Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan has said that the government had evolved a strategy to involve religious scholars, Nazims, health workers and local community to expedite the vaccination programme in the country and save the children from the preventable ailments.

Speaking as chief guest at a function held here on Saturday in connection with the polio-eradication drive, he said the children must be protected from the fatal diseases  by launching various health care programmes.

The minister said that enough quantity of vaccines and syringes had been provided to the provincial governments in its bid to ensure that all children below five years should be vaccinated.

He said doctors and health workers had been motivated to eradicate the crippling ailment of polio.

The programme, he said, would be carried out with a mechanism of accountability and reward. He also stressed the need that health professionals should concentrate on the success of TB, Aids, malaria and other programmes carried out by the government.

The NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan on the occasion said that the government was giving top priority to  the vaccination programme. He said that the government had recently launched anti-hepatitis campaign to raise awareness among the people regarding the disease.

He said the government was committed to see a polio-free country and therefore stress was being laid on public awareness, so that the people could get immunised against the diseases.

Provincial Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai  and Minister for Usher and Zakat Hafiz Hashmat Khan also spoke on the occasion.