QUETTA: Leading religious scholars have rejected the propaganda being spread against polio vaccine and urged Ulema to avoid issuing fatwas (religious decrees) against polio eradication campaigns.

They expressed these views while speaking at a seminar organised by the district administration of Quetta here on Saturday to dispel the negative propaganda against polio vaccine and engage leading religious scholars in the war against polio virus.

Maulana Anwarul Haq Haqqani, Dr Attaur Rehman, Qari Rasheed, Abdul Raheem Raheemi, officials of the Divisional Task Force against polio virus and other Ulema attended the seminar.

The seminar was organised to create awareness among people about the importance of polio vaccine for children below the age of five.

The speakers said polio vaccine did not have anything which was not allowed in Islam. They said it was responsibility of religious leaders to counter the propaganda against polio vaccine, adding that they should promote anti-polio campaigns so that children could be protected from the crippling disease.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2019