The Federal Government on June 20 asked
the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor
Syed Masood Kausar to try
to enter into dialogue with
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in North Waziristan Agency of Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA) to pave the way
for vaccination of children,
reports Dawn. A letter
sent to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Governor Syed Masood Kausar
by Shahnaz Wazir Ali, focal
person for polio at the Prime
Minister’s Polio Eradication
Cell Secretariat requested
the Governor to start talks
with the TTP through the political
agent of North Waziristan.
A militant outfit headed by Hafiz Gul
Bahadar had announced ban
on polio vaccination on June
16, 2012, in reaction to the
drone attacks. The letter
titled “Ban on polio campaign
in North Waziristan” expressed serious concern
over reports regarding TTP’s ban on polio campaign in North Waziristan and asked the Governor
to hold dialogue with militant
leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar to
save children from becoming
handicapped. “All the available
means must be utilised to
ensure that the polio campaigns
in the area are not disrupted
for the sake of the future
of 161,000 children there,”
a one-page letter said. It
said that the Government was
extremely concerned about
eradicating polio from the
country in general and FATA
in particular. |
