Islamabad, March 10: PILDAT facilitated separate meetings with members of Sindh Assembly in Karachi on March 09, 2011 and with the Parliamentarians of FATA on March 10, 2011 in Peshawar to review the situation analysis of recent immunization campaigns.

�Increase in polio cases from 2009 to 2010 is a frightening situation for us, absence of harmonization between bureaucracy and public representative is one of the main reasons for this failure, said Mr. Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Speaker Sindh Assembly while chairing the review meeting. He strongly criticized the high ratio of missed children that remain deprived of polio vaccination during campaigns days. Discussing the fact that polio cases are increasing in FATA and Sindh, he said �it is awful to know that Sindh, with entirely different circumstances is compared with FATA where other than war many religious and social taboos act as impediments in immunization campaigns�.

In the meeting Mr. Shaukat Ali, Polio Officer, UNICEF presented the situation analysis of recent immunization campaigns before the participants. Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Baldia and Gadap are included in high risk zones of Karachi in terms of identification of polio cases while Sukkar, Larkana, Ghotki, Kambar, Kashmore, Khairpur and Shikarpur are considered as high risk zones of Sindh.. Explaining the reasons for missed children in last immunization campaigns, he mentioned that out of many reasons 7% children are missed due to their refusal, 38% children are missed due to unavailability of teams while 49 % children are missed due to absence or unavailability of children during campaigns times.

Dr. Altaf Bosan, National Programme Manager, EPI gave the current status of polio and National Emergency Action Plan to eradicate polio in the meeting. �The number of reported polio cases in 2011 is higher than the number of cases reported during the same period of 2010. The highest case load is from FATA, 13 polio cases have been identified across Pakistan in 2011 where two cases belong to Sindh�, disclosed Dr. Bosan in his presentation. Identifying the challenges he said that low capacity and lack of accountability, poor implementation of the campaign activities and inconsistent coverage in accessible areas, lack of owner ship at the level of District Management and poor monitoring are the main challenges we need to deal with.

Ms. Fouzia Ejaz Khan, MNA also participated in the meeting. Other participants include Mr. Anwar Ahmed Khan Mahar, MPA, Dr. Ahmed Ali Shah, MPA, Dr. Nadeem Maqbool, MPA and Ms. Marvi Rashdi, MPA.

The meeting held in Peshawar on March 10, 2011 was attended by members of the FATA Parliament including Mr. Abdul Maalik Wazir, MNA, Mr. Kamran Khan, MNA, Senator Abdur Rasheed and Senator Hafiz Rasheed while Mr. Abid Majeed, Secretary Administration and Coordination, Dr. Fawad Khan, Director Health, FATA Secretariat, and Dr. Muhammad Rafiq, Programme Specialist, UNICEF also participated in the meeting. Members from the Tribal Union of Journalists and representatives of civil society also participated in the meeting.

FATA legislator concerned at lack of coordination between FATA Secretariat and legislators during immunization campaigns. They demanded that Government should call upon Grand Jirga to make a consensus on improving immunization coverage in FATA.

Mr. Kamran Khan and Senator Hafiz Rasheed strongly condemned the idea to use FCR to give vaccines to children during immunization camapigns. Parliamentarians urged to improve the coordination system of the health department and awareness through media.

�Political Agents, Commandants and Parliamentarians can play their role to increase the immunization coverage. Health official rely on mere information sharing while they never ask for our support and ownership, said Senator Abdur Rasheed.

Mr. Abid Majeed during his presentation said that 2, 72, 711 children are inaccessible out of total 1, 086, 682 children of FATA and 8 new cases are identified in 2011. Many managerial issues were also highlighted in his presentation and facts and statistics were pointed out. �Civil Military Coordination Committee and FATA crisis task force is constituted in all agencies of FATA�, said Mr. Abid Majeed in his presentation.

Earlier Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director-PILDAT gave the background of the sessions. He said that Pakistan is one of the four endemic countries where polio is still prevailing as a threat and is continuously increasing in the country. He said that it is the time now to join hands and start a collective effort to eradicate polio and to save our future generations.