ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that polio-free Pakistan was the dream of Benazir Bhutto, and the PPP has strong political will to turn this dream into reality.

According to a press release issued by Media Cell Bilawal House, the PPP chairman, in his message on the occasion of World Polio Day, said that the nation remembers that it was Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who launched the Polio Eradication Program for the first time in the country in 1994 to protect Pakistani children from the lifelong crippling disease.

He said that the anti-polio programme was strongly opposed by the reactionary forces, but Benazir was not going to back down either as she started her struggle against this unjustified opposition and misguided propaganda by first administering polio vaccine to her own daughter and my younger sister, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari. “I believe that Pakistan’s victory is inevitable in every war started and led by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto,” he added.

Bilawal said that as a result of the efforts of the previous provincial government of PPP, not a single polio case was reported in Sindh from July 2020 to October 2023.

“After the term of the PPP government ended 2 months ago, the emergence of a polio case during this month is a matter of extreme concern to me,” he said and appealed to the parents of children under five years of age to always take the initiative in giving their children polio vaccine and to cooperate with the polio workers.

The chairman PPP applauded polio teams for their unparalleled services and also paid glowing tribute to the workers who sacrificed their lives in different parts of the country during the anti-polio campaigns, saying: “The polio workers fighting against the disease that permanently cripples children are our heroes, who are underappreciated.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023