LAHORE, May 24: Caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi on Friday presided over his cabinet’s farewell meeting and thanked his team and officials for conducting the general election.

The meeting reviewed the wheat procurement campaign and the measures taken for controlling measles, polio and dengue. It appreciated the steps taken by the caretaker government for the general election and in social sector.

Sethi said the caretaker government took effective steps for holding peaceful and transparent elections. A peaceful atmosphere was provided to the people to exercise their right to vote in an independent and free manner. Foreign observers and leaders of political parties also appreciated the measures taken by the caretaker government for the elections.

He said the caretaker set-up had performed its national duty efficiently. He also lauded the efforts of the provincial bureaucracy and thanked the finance secretary for his cooperation.

He appreciated the arrangements for wheat procurement. In spite of elections, more than 2.9 million ton wheat had been procured.

The chief minister said the dengue situation was completely under control and effective measures had been adopted to check the menace.

He asked the health department to continue protecting children against measles. He said the caretaker government had performed its national responsibility with honesty, hard work and commitment, and it was a matter of satisfaction that none of its members was accused of corruption or involved in any scandal.

The food secretary said over 2.9 million ton wheat had been procured during the 21-day campaign while 84 per cent gunny bags distributed. Special committees were monitoring the campaign.

The health secretary briefed on anti-measles, polio and dengue programmes. A special campaign was launched from April 29 to May 7 for controlling measles and 1,125 teams administered high quality WHO-approved vaccine to a sizeable number of children.

He said a third party audit of the campaign was also arranged by Unicef and WHO. He said another programme had been evolved for vaccinating three million children of six to 10 years of age against measles.

In the first phase, vaccine would be administered to the children of 11 districts from June 24 to July 4, while in the second phase the children of the remaining districts would be vaccinated in September. The anti-polio vaccination programme had also been completed.