Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said his government has a firm resolve to eradicate polio from Pakistan, the worst affected country in the world.
Sharif said the country had achieved remarkable success eradicating polio and appreciated the cooperation of Chief Ministers for conducting successful campaigns in their respective provinces.
"Government has strong resolve and political and financial commitment to take forward the task of combating the polio incidence in Pakistan," he said while chairing a meeting of the National Task Force on Polio Eradication.
Thanking international partners for their support to fight polio, Sharif directed the provincial administration and other concerned organisations to work even harder for eliminating the crippling virus in Pakistan.
Earlier, Focal Person for National Task Force on Polio Eradication Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq told the meeting that the polio cases had gone down by 82 per cent this year in comparison with last year.
"As a result of good program implementation and high quality polio campaigns there is no polio case in Punjab and Sind since December 2014," Ayesha said.
Noting that Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa, especially its southern parts, were the real concern, she said the recent reports indicate better access to previously inaccessible parts of the restive region.
The meeting was told that in FATA, a semi-autonomous tribal region in northwestern Pakistan, the programme has seen a major turnaround.
During last year and first half of this year, of the total 282 million children cumulatively targeted in campaigns, about 267 million children (95 per cent) have been vaccinated, the meeting was informed.
Polio is still endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. The WHO in May last year imposed travel restriction on Pakistan.
Children in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) cannot be vaccinated as the outlawed Taliban has banned the campaigns since June 2012.
According to global polio surveillance data from September 2, 2015, out of the total 37 cases reported this year 29 are from Pakistan and 8 from Afghanistan.
