Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The federal government is spending about Rs 300 million on the promotion of technical education in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

FATA Secretariat informed on Thursday that the scheme also include construction of college of Management Sciences and a technical institute in South Waziristan Agency.

The official further said, “Federal Government has allocated funds to develop educational institutions in FATA”. Similarly, a polytechnic institute is under construction in Kurram Agency. Apart from it a technical college is also being opened in Bajaur Agency.

The sources claimed the government has also provided scholarships to tribal students for getting technical education in various colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Progress of Polio programme in FATA, efforts of EOC team were reviewed: The progress of Polio programme in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and efforts of Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) FATA team were reviewed in a high level meeting on Thursday.

The meeting was chaired by the FATA Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Fida Muhammad Wazir.

ACS FATA appreciated EOC FATA Team, UN partners; Agency Surgeons and Political Administration over exemplary team work in reaching out and vaccinating children in far flung areas of FATA.

“There has been incredible progress made during past couple of years but we need to sustain same zeal and devotion, as the challenge is enormous, and it does not allow us to lower our pace towards polio eradication in FATA,” Fida Muhammad Wazir added.

“We need to strengthen the monitoring and accountability mechanism that will ultimately contribute in identifying the gaps thereby improving the quality of anti-polio campaigns,” ACS added.

Secretary Law & Order FATA, Dr Atta ur Rehman shared that almost all of the FATA is accessible and open for agency staff to reach out every child for anti-polio vaccination. However, if agency surgeons face hurdles in accessing any part of FATA due to security reasons it should be coordinated well on time so that special arrangements could be made for those specific areas.

Director Health Services FATA Dr Jawad Habib Khan also pledged full support to polio program and assured solemn commitment on the part of FATA Health Directorate in addressing problems that comes in its domain, especially, maintaining the cold chain system and functionalizing cold rooms installed in certain agencies. He said FATA Health Directorate is focusing on bringing improvement in routine immunization which will contributes to polio program ultimately.

UNICEF Chief Aiden Oleary appreciated the massive amount of hard work done by polio team all around Pakistan as well as FATA team. “We are aiming to eradicate polio, so we are working to restrict and maintain the number of zero polio cases”, he said, adding vaccinating children on move due to travel, repatriation and seasonal migration is a challenge.

He said transit vaccination is not only to vaccinate children on move but also to vaccinate them where they land. He said presently a single formidable risk entire national program is facing is at South Waziristan Agency where gaps in anti-polio campaign still exists that are needed to be addressed. And we should ensure to reach highest possible quality in the upcoming campaigns.

Earlier, agency surgeons presented facts and figures of anti-polio campaigns in their respective agencies, along with challenges and problems faced during campaigns. Some of the issues presented to be addressed were: coordination with security agencies for vaccinating children in far flung and recently de-notified areas; hiring of technical staff against vacant positions; and functionalization of cold rooms available at certain Agency Head Quarters Hospitals.