Wahab asks Karachiites to make anti-polio drive a success

Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab on Thursday asked the citizens to make the ongoing campaign to eradicate polio a success and play their role in saving their future generations from the disease.

"We need to make our children safe and strong against polio for a brighter and better future," he said while speaking at a meeting with Unicef representatives to discuss the five-day polio eradication campaign starting in Karachi on September 20.

"More than 2.3 million children will be vaccinated during the polio campaign and implementation of coronavirus SOPs will be ensured," said Wahab, who also acts as a Sindh government spokesman.

He said the campaign would involve more than 23,000 polio workers, who had been especially trained to implement Covid-19 SOPs. “The anti-polio campaign is a national goal on which our children's future depends," he said.

The purpose of the anti-polio campaign was to provide the necessary awareness to the citizens and to ensure polio vaccination in all areas of the city, he added. “We will continue our efforts to eradicate polio with the cooperation and collaboration of Unicef and other international organisations,” he said and noted that after successful polio campaigns, the disease had been eradicated from most of the countries of the world.

The administrator said Pakistan was one of the few unfortunate countries where the disease had not been eradicated so far, mainly due to the reluctance of people to vaccinate their children against polio. “However, now is the time for all Pakistanis to unite against this disease.”

He hoped that the fruits of the campaign launched for the eradication of polio would soon reach the people of Pakistan, and as a result of these efforts, our country would join the ranks of polio-free countries.