PESHAWAR, Feb 11: With the help of local elders and ulema, the administration started a three-day anti-polio vaccination drive in the Frontier Region of Peshawar on Saturday.

The drive was inaugurated by assistant political agent, FR Peshawar, Naveed Akbar Khan, by administering vaccine to a child at Azam Kili during a gathering. A statement issued here said that despite a semi-tribal area the local people had extended full cooperation and informed the people through loudspeakers in mosques.

The APA informed that during the previous drive the vaccines had been administered to some 1,400 children and that was why no case of polio had been reported from the area so far. The drive will end on Feb 13.

LANDI KOTAL: The Khyber Agency political agent has warned that stern action would be taken against parents who refuse polio vaccination to their children below the age of five.

The warning was given by the Political Agent Mutahir Zeb while inaugurating a three-day anti-polio campaign at Jamrud civil hospital on Saturday.

Mr Zeb said that his administration would not tolerate any laxity in the campaign against polio and warned that refusing parents would be sent to jail.

He called upon the ulema and tribal elders to extend their whole-hearted support during the polio campaign and ensure vaccination of maximum number of children.

Agency surgeon Dr Azam Wazir said almost 200,000 children would be vaccinated against polio during the current campaign. He said in order to reach out to maximum number of children, the local health department had constituted 474 teams, which will carry out door to door vaccination.

LAKKI MARWAT: District Coordination Officer and Political Agent of FR Lakki Marwat Nisar Ahmad on Saturday said that the administration would make efforts to overcome refusal cases and wipe out polio from the tribal area.

He was speaking at a ceremony held to inaugurate the polio campaign in the area. Mr Nisar also administered oral polio vaccine to several children under the age of five years at a school in a remote Sargra Mohammad Khan village.

Assistant political agent Mohammad Fayyaz Khan Sherpao, agency surgeon Dr Abdul Ghaffar Wazir, tribal elders, teachersa and students were present on the occasion. — Dawn Report