PESHAWAR, April 6: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan on Friday took a suo motu notice of the reports about the risk of polio outbreak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said the court would develop a mechanism to make it mandatory for people to produce certificates about their children’s vaccination while filing petitions.

During hearing into different cases, he asked provincial Advocate General Asadullah Khan Chamkani to play his due role as the chairman of the Provincial Bar Council in creation of public awareness of the importance of children’s vaccination against polio.

The chief justice said he would meet Fata lawyers to push them for educating people of their respective areas about prevention of the crippling disease, and summoned the advocate general for directions on the matter.

This year, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has so far reported four new polio cases, one each in Peshawar, DI Khan, Kohat and Lakki Marwat.

Justice Dost Mohammad observed that on his part, he could make it mandatory to link filing of writ petitions and other cases in the high court to that of vaccination of children. He said the court would evolve a mechanism under which in future, every petitioner would have to produce a certificate from the in charge of anti-polio vaccination in an area along with his/her petition.

The chief justice observed that anti-polio vaccine was tested in different laboratories and it had no adverse effects on a child, but certain elements had been attaching different misconceptions to it. He said lawyers, especially those living in tribal areas, could play an important role to dispel such misconceptions.

Justice Dost Mohammad said he would try to convince Fata lawyers to begin awareness campaigns in their respective areas to remove misperceptions about anti-polio vaccination. He told the advocate general that by virtue of his post, he was the chairman of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council and he should play his role for polio eradication.

The chief justice asked the advocate general that he should communicate with all bar associations in the province and ask them to begin awareness campaigns and pass resolutions in their meetings highlighting the importance of anti-polio vaccination.Justice Dost Mohammad urged religious scholars to come forward and issue decree for anti-polio drops’ effectiveness and said to turn the society into a welfare one in line with the teachings of Islam, the court had to strive for a healthy society, which was impossible with healthy children, who were the future of the country.

He regretted that poor children suffering from polio either ended up as beggars or were trapped by drug traffickers.

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) alerted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in a ‘very urgent communication’ to the dangers of the vaccinators’ failure to get access to militancy-affected Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency over the last two-and-a-half years.

In that communication, WHO representative in Pakistan Dr Guido Sabatinelli apprised Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastagir of the serious crisis in evolution in the province with imminent risk of polio outbreaks and said an exodus of population was happening from Bara as reflected in sudden up scaling of the registered displaced families at Jalozai camp in Nowshera district.

“Almost the entire Bara tehsil has no vaccination campaign since September 2009 and hence it has the most persistent outbreak of polio cases ever seen in Pakistan in such a circumscribed area,” it said.