Aseefa invites Maryam, Reham to join drive against polio

KARACHI: In a bid to further strengthen Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate polio, Rotary International’s Ambassador for Polio Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari invited on Thursday Maryam Nawaz of PML-N and Reham Khan of PTI to join hands with her to accelerate the countrywide polio eradication campaign.

The daughter of former president and co-chairman PPP Asif Ali Zardari invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam and PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s wife Reham to join the anti-polio campaign to ensure that every child is protected from deadly virus in the country.

Following a briefing on polio and a meeting with Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari expressed her resolve to raise awareness and reach out across the parties to strengthen advocacy for polio eradication, said a statement issued here.

The other participants of the meeting were Chairperson All Provincial Public Health Programs MNA Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Provincial Coordinator Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Secretary Health Iftikhar Shalwani and Principal Secretary to CM Alamuddin Bullo.

Aseefa asked the parents to actively participate in the campaign by giving two drops to every child under the age of five.

Chief Minister Shah, on the occasion said that detection of four polio cases in Sindh during the first three months of 2015 has become a grave challenge for his government.

Dr Azra Pechuho told the chief minister that out of total 93 polio cases in the country in 2013, 10 of them were in Sindh. In 2014, the cases increased to 30 out of 306 and now in the first three months of 2015, 21 cases have been detected across the country and four in Sindh.

The CM Sindh pointed out that all these four cases have been detected in rural Sindh.

Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari said the Sindh government should reach to each and every child in the province to administer polio drops. Apart from it polio teams must also be provided necessary security, she added.