ISLAMABAD May 17 (APP): Minister of State for Information,
Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb, who is
also Convener of the Parliamentary Task Force on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said Wednesday that landmark achievements in anti-polio
immunization programme across the country were the outcome of the
oversight role of the parliamentarians.
While chairing the meeting of the task force here to
discuss the overview of SDGs on good health and routine immunization, she
said that whenever the members of the task force raised the issues
related to health, the Ministry of Health and Planning Commission took
immediate remedial measures.
Marriyum Aurangzeb emphasized the vital role of
parliamentarians in improving and strengthening immunization campaign
at the constituency level for saving the lives of children.
About the milestones achieved in the Punjab, she said that
attendance of the vaccinators was being ensured and monitoring
of immunization process had been improved and transportation
problems of the field staff also had been resolved.
She said that immunization process has
been reinforced with a technology-based surveillance as the
vaccination cards issued to the families had a chip which made
it impossible for the vaccinators to enter the wrong figures
She said that Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif was
personally monitoring the performance of the field staff. The
minister said that the vaccinators who did not take the job
seriously had been terminated and on the other hand incentives
had been given for good work.
Dr Saqlain Gilani from Expanded Program on Immunization
(EPI), Pakistan told the committee that federal health ministry
was very active in immunization drive and this could be gauged by
the fact that Balochistan had been given Rs 7 billion for the purpose.
He said that Punjab immunization programme was being
show-cased due to successful achievement of 89 percent coverage
in the province so far.
Earlier in another briefing, the meeting was
informed that now no area of the country was away from the
spotlight and the necessary technical
assistance was being extended wherever needed while the
attendance of the vaccinators was being marked through smart
phone applications.
The MNAs gave their proposals to further improve the
immunization drive in all parts of the country. Sheryar Afridi
said that the members of the SDGs Task Force should be invited to
attend meetings of the parliamentary committees on Health.
He said that Punjab has become a trend-setter in
immunization programme which should be appreciated.
The meeting was attended by Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli,
Farhana Qamar, Zahra Wahood Fatemi, Tahira Aurangzeb,Romina Khursheed,
Syed Ashiq Hussain Shah,Malik Uzair Khan, Mehreen Razaque Bhutto,
Shehryar Afridi,Munazza Hassan,Shaza Fatima Khawaja,Naeema Kishwar Khan
and Nafeesa Inaytullah Khattak.