Pakistan on Saturday blamed its war against terror for creating hurdles in the way of its polio eradication efforts and said it would seek India’s expertise in its fight against polio.
Pakistan’s minister for inter-provincial coordination, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, said that whereas India has done a marvellous job by bringing the number of polio cases to zero during the last one year, there are multiple factors which are creating hurdles in the way of their polio eradication effort.
“One major obstacle is Pakistan’s fight against terror which has made a number of areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Provinces bordering Afghanistan as highly volatile. Resultantly, it is not possible for the health workers and vaccinators to reach all children to administer polio drops to them,” he said during the Polio Summit 2012. Pakistan is one of the three polio endemic countries.
Praising India’s achievement in its fight against polio, the Pakistan minister said that they were doing their best to follow its footprints and rid Pakistan of polio. He said that the forum will be an opportunity for both Pakistan and Afghanistan to interact with India to learn from its experiences.
“We would also like to know about India’s experience in raising its routine immunisation coverage,” he said.