Peshawar: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department Friday clarifying the news of handing over of the polio eradication campaign to the Army, said that in the meeting held at GHQ, no such decision of handing over of the polio eradication campaign to army was made.
Technical Focal Person Chief Minister’s Monitoring Cell Chief Minister Secretariat Peshawar Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah said the press has misquoted the press release of ISPR.
He said polio eradication has been declared a national emergency. The programme is being run under National Emergency Action Plan (NEAP) for Polio Eradication developed in consultation with all Provincial Governments.
The Plan outlines strategies, monitoring and implementation structures at the federal, provincial, district and union council levels. Goal of the Plan is to eradicate polio virus from the country; for a healthy future generation and to maintain Pakistan’s stature as responsible country in the world.
The political and administrative leadership of the Province is fully cognizant of the polio threat and has therefore been proactively involved in the fight against it.
The incumbent government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has health on priority of its agendas, Dr. Imtiaz said adding the political and administrative leadership are fully committed to this noble national cause. Seriousness of commitment is obvious from the fact that the Chief Secretary, Secretary Health, Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs and Provincial Police Officer lead the program at the provincial level while the campaigns are implemented by Deputy Commissioners in their respective districts.
The innovative plan of “Sehat Ka Insaf” was adopted for Peshawar. The Police Department came up with robust security plan to ensure that vaccination is being carried out in an enabling environment.
He said a fool-proof security apparatus was put in place where police could be actively seen on streets and road; plugging all major and minor routes and establishing pickets.
Extra police was mobilised from other districts and other law enforcement agencies were involved to conduct search operations in some areas prior to campaigns, he added.
The security plan worked well, Dr Imtiaz claimed and said that in the last 11 rounds held in Peshawar and two rounds held in Mardan, Charsadda, and Swabi no serious incident has occurred.
