ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: The government is contemplating giving a fresh look to its drive against polio by inviting top Indian film diva Aishwariya Rai to participate in the next round of immunization campaign along with pop singer Jawad Ahmed.

“This year we intended to build up excitement in the next round of polio campaign approaching in the last week of September by involving two polio ambassadors of the region namely Indian film actress Aishwariya Rai and Pakistan’s pop star Jawad Ahmed,” Federal Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan told Dawn here on Friday.

Preparations are being finalized to hold two functions, one each in Pakistan and India, involving both stars to send a positive message, highlighting the need for saving children by completely wiping out the menace of polio from the region, he said.

If successfully translated into reality, the event would boost confidence-building efforts between the two countries, he said, adding that health, which had no colour, creed or religion, had a pivotal role to play in bringing the two countries closer.

Jawad has already recorded a new song encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated during the next national immunization campaign. The video of the new song is yet to be made.

Such initiatives become all the more relevant as Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are the three countries where the disease still thrives, the health minister said.

Earlier, the health ministers of India and Pakistan had decided to jointly organize polio campaigns in their respective countries involving cricket stars who participated in a similar campaign last year.

The minister, however, was confident that Pakistan was close to be declared a polio-free country with only 12 cases reported in 2005.

Prior to the first national polio immunization campaign in the country which started in 1994, 15,000 to 20,000 children were becoming crippled every year due to this disease alone. By 2002, the number reduced to 98 for the entire country.

“We are on target and are trying our best to completely eradicate this menace from Pakistan by the end of 2005,” the minister said.

Globally, less then 800 polio cases were reported in 2003, and three-quarters of them occurred in only three countries namely Nigeria (347), India (234 cases) and Pakistan (103 cases).