PESHAWAR, March 27: The provincial government on Tuesday assured representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund that the government would take strict security measures for the protection of Unicef staff during the anti-polio campaign.

The assurance was given by NWFP chief secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor during a meeting with Unicef country representatives Martin Magwanja and Dr Abdul Jamil.The chief secretary underlined the need for cementing the government-Unicef cooperation.

He also urged authorities concerned to extend their fullest cooperation to Unicef teams across the province to ensure delivery of best possible social services to all people, especially those living in backward areas of the province.

He also issued a directive that female teachers be engaged in the campaign to ensure vaccination of every child.

Unicef representatives appreciated the NWFP government’s education and health sector reforms, particularly in the areas of mother and child care besides girls’ education.

Meanwhile, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on Tuesday directed officials of all district administrations throughout the province to coordinate with the Unicef to make the polio campaign a success in the province.

“The district administrations should be on board in the entire exercise of the polio campaign and there should be no excuses in carrying out the campaign to every part of the province,” the chief minister said while talking to Mr Martin

Magwanja, Unicef representative in Pakistan, at the Frontier House. Mr Durrani said he would get feedback from secret teams to ensure that his directive was implemented in letter and spirit.

He said there were no two opinions in the MMA government in the Frontier province about polio eradication.

He said he would take stern actions against heads of departments if they were found showing lethargy and leniency at any stage of the campaign.

He said that in order to remove misperceptions of the people about the campaign, MMA’s top leaders Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad were themselves involved in convincing the people to let their children take polio drops so that the future generation of the province could be rid of the debilitating disease.