ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government will conduct a week-long polio immunization program in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southern Sindh provinces from Apr. 29, the state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Sunday. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the poliovirus, which causes paralysis and can be a life-threatening disease, is endemic.

“A week-long National Immunization Campaign will begin in twenty-five districts of Sindh and thirteen districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from tomorrow,” Radio Pakistan said in a report. 

Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah chaired a meeting of the Provincial Task Force for Eradication of Polio in Karachi on Saturday. Shah directed all district administrations to cooperate with the polio teams and make the drive successful, the report said. 

“The meeting was informed that around eight million children up to the age of five years would be administered anti-polio vaccines during the campaign,” the report said. 

Meanwhile, over 2.8 million children will be administered anti-polio drops during the drive, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Operation Center said. 

“Twenty-one thousand teams have been constituted for this purpose,” the report added. 

Pakistan’s efforts to contain polio have often been met with opposition, especially in the country’s northwestern KP province, where militants have carried out attacks against vaccinators and the security teams guarding them. 

Many believe in the conspiracy theory that polio vaccines are part of a plot by Western outsiders to sterilize Pakistan’s population.

Pakistani masses’ doubts regarding polio campaigns were exacerbated in 2011 when the US Central Intelligence Agency set up a fake hepatitis vaccination program to gather intelligence on former Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. 

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will kick off his World Economic Forum engagements in Riyadh today, Sunday, during which he is scheduled to take part in a special meeting on global health and engage with prominent personalities, his office said in a statement. 

Sharif arrived in Riyadh on Saturday to attend a two-day WEF meeting on global collaboration, growth and energy, which will be held in the Saudi capital from April 28-29.

The prime minister was extended an invitation to attend the meeting by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Professor Klaus Schwab, the WEF executive chairman.

“PM Shehbaz Sharif and his delegation will present Pakistan’s priorities in global health, fintech, climate change, inclusive energy and rejuvenating growth,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement on social media platform X.

The PMO said Sharif will also meet Kuwait’s emir, Meshal Al Ahmed Al Jabr, and Saudi ministers of finance, industry and investment separately. 

“The Prime Minister will also meet the Co-Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and the President of the Islamic Development Bank,” the PMO said. 

Prior to Sharif’s departure, the PM Office said he would be accompanied by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. 

It said Sharif’s participation in the forum will afford Pakistan an opportunity to highlight its priorities in global health architecture, inclusive growth, revitalizing regional collaboration, and the need for striking a balance between promoting growth and energy consumption.

Sharif met Adviser at the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia and General Secretary of Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council Mohammed bin Mazyad Al-Tuwaijri on Saturday to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries. 

The two sides reviewed the progress on the Saudi investment in Pakistan, which came under discussion during the visit of the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan recently to Pakistan.
 
“Al-Tuwaijri and his delegation expressed deep interest in the Saudi investment by the Saudi government and companies in Pakistan,” the state-run APP said.

Sharif will also attend the 15th session of the Islamic Summit Conference organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on May 4-5 in the Gambian capital of Banjul to discuss a variety of regional and global issues, including Palestine, Islamophobia, climate change and the status of minorities, the Pakistani state-run APP news agency reported.

The session will be held under the slogan “Enhancing Unity and Solidarity through Dialogue for Sustainable Development,” according to a press release issued by the OIC General Secretariat.

The Islamic Summit is a principal organ of the OIC focused on the formulation, development, and implementation of decisions made by 57 member states. It is attended by concerned heads of state such as prime ministers, presidents, emirs and other equivalent heads.