Two councillors arrested for refusing to inoculate children

TAG chairman lauds govt’s efforts to ensure security to frontline workers

PESHAWAR/MARDAN:

Peshawar DC Riaz Mehsud has put two councillors behind bars for refusing to inoculate children against polio virus.

According to a statement issued by the district administration on Friday, Minhaj and Saleem, two councillors from Larama and Dag union councils respectively, were arrested under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960.

Earlier, in March, the provincial government devised a strategy to reduce the number of refusal cases in the province. It urged the district administrations to arrest parents who do not vaccinate their children against the crippling virus. As a result, over 450 parents had been arrested by March 3. Although World Health Organization (WHO) voiced reservations over this policy, the Peshawar district administration decided to resume the practice to rid the city of polio.

All geared up

At least 369,056 children will be vaccinated against poliovirus during an immunisation campaign scheduled for this month in Mardan.

Plans for the drive were discussed during a meeting held at the office of Mardan DC Shahidullah Khan on Friday. The moot was attended by WHO representatives, assistant commissioners of various tehsils.

The DC announced that 1,002 teams have been constituted for the campaign. “This includes transit, fix and mobile teams,” he said. “I strongly urge officials to ensure that the drive is successful.”



According to Shahidullah, certificates will be issued to those teams who achieve their targets within the stipulated period. He also pressed parents to have their children inoculated.

“If they refuse to vaccinate their children, we will have no choice but to arrest them under Section 3 of the 1960 Ordinance,” he added.

Show of support

Polio Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Chairman Jean Marc has lauded measures taken by the government to ensure security to frontline workers. He said their endeavours have reduced the number of polio cases in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). This was stated in a press release issued on Friday.

Marc was speaking at the Emergency Operation Centre in the city where he was briefed about polio eradication initiatives, Continuous Community Protected Vaccination (CCPV) and new approaches to bring the virus under control.

 “Marc voiced hope that the CCPV initiative launched in Peshawar, Bannu, Tank, Khyber Agency, FR Bannu and North Waziristan Agency would help decrease the number of refusal cases,” read the statement. “Furthermore, he said the initiative would enable polio workers to carry out campaigns in relatively inaccessible areas.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2015.