LOWER DIR: Pakistan Peoples Party provincial president Humayun Khan said here on Thursday that leadership of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf politicised the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country.

Talking to local journalists in Chakdara during his visit to the area, he said that prime minister had promised to provide 100 million jobs to youth and construct five million houses for homeless but nothing was done in that regard.

“The government has gifted the nation with price hike and unemployment as thousands of youth have become jobless during the last two years,” said the PPP leader. He alleged that government was benefitting the PTI workers instead of common people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that former premier Nawaz Sharif had included Chakdara-Chitral road project in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor but the incumbent government dropped it from the PSDP projects.

DRIVE: Deputy Commissioner Saadat Hassan said here on Thursday that action would be taken against the parents for refusing anti-polio vaccine to their children.

He was chairing a meeting regarding arrangements for the next anti-polio drive. The district health officer, Dr Nazir Khan, DDHO Dr Irshad Rughani, under-training PMS officer Shawana Haleem, Dr Zakiud Din, the assistant director of local government, Mohammad Mamoon Nawaz and other stakeholders attended the meeting.

The meeting was told that all arrangements for the next five-day anti-polio campaign scheduled to be held from September 21 to 25 were finalised. It was told that 999 teams were formed to vaccinate 276,084 children in 41 union councils of the district.

The deputy commissioner said that there would be no compromise on refusal cases and the parents refusing vaccination would be dealt with iron hand. He directed the health officials to monitor the drive. Shawana Haleem was nominated as focal person for the monitoring team.

Also in the day, Dr Nazir Khan along with district medical entomologist Mir Manzarud Din and anti-dengue quick response team visited Zimdagra village council in Maidan from where a suspected case of dengue was reported.

The team carried out fogging, indoor residual spray and outdoor vector surveillance. The team also distributed informative pamphlets among the locals.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2020