Pak PM rolls out year’s first anti-polio drive

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday formally launched the first anti-polio drive of the year as the country struggles to eradicate the crippling disease.

A ceremony was held in Islamabad where he administered polio drops to children to unveil the campaign. Polio workers would administer polio drops during the seven-day drive from February 3 to 9.

Addressing the launch, the prime minister expressed his determination to eradicate polio from Pakistan, saying that millions of children would be vaccinated across the length and breadth of the country during the campaign.

Sharif hoped that the dedicated teams would work “day and night to eradicate the disease, and would reach the far-flung areas and villages”, adding these teams would successfully meet the huge responsibility by “utilising their complete energies”. He said Islamabad, through international partners, also has close coordination with Kabul and hopefully polio virus would be eliminated from Afghanistan through

mutual support. Agencies