KARACHI: A special three-day polio campaign scheduled to kick-off from Nov 30 has been postponed for a week as police refused to provide required security to polio teams citing their preoccupation for the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (Ideas 2014) beginning next week, officials said on Friday.

“We have decided to postpone the campaign for a week in light of the instructions we have received from senior authorities, who said the dates for our drive conflict with the defence exhibition that too required tight security arrangements,” said a senior official while speaking to Dawn.

Officials in the provincial government said that the polio campaign’s dates had been changed on the advice of the provincial police officials.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has banned the use of heli-cams, also known as drone cameras, by private news channels for the coverage of Ideas 2014 due to security reasons.

A spokesman for the Sindh home department said that the decision was in line with the suggestions forwarded by the law enforcement agencies tasked with security of the mega event.

““The home department under Section 144 of the criminal procedure code has imposed a ban on the use of heli-cams from November 29 to December 5 in and around the Expo Centre at Hasan Square,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2014