CHITRAL: The health department has allowed Aga Khan Health Services Pakistan to charge Rs30 per child for vaccination in three remote union councils of Chitral.

The matter came under discussion in the meeting of district polio eradication committee chaired by Additional Deputy Commissioner Minhasuddin. The participants of the meeting expressed their astonishment over charging parents for administering free vaccine to their children.

The representatives of AKHS, present on the occasion, could not justify charging of parents of children below five years during the special or normal immunisation campaign. They said government had inked memorandum of understanding with the organisation in that regard.

Some of the field staffers in attendance told the meeting that the parents were reluctant to pay for the vaccination and there was probability that many of them must have evaded vaccination of their children solely for the ‘fear of being charged’. One of the union council monitoring officers said that parents always expressed reservations about charging them for vaccination of children in those areas and preferred to vaccinate the children in other union councils where it was free.

The additional deputy commissioner asked District Health Officer Dr Iftikhar to convene a special meeting of his department with AKHS to look into the agreement between the government and the organisation and chalk out future line of action.

ANNIVERSARY: The second anniversary of Osama Warraich Coaching Academy was held here on Wednesday in which students, academia and representatives of civil society participated in a large number. The contribution of the academy founded by the former deputy commissioner of the district for the poor but talented students was appreciated on the occasion.

Assistant Commissioner Alamgir Khan, parents and students addressed the event. They said that the academy enabled a fair number of students to get admission in leading institutions of medical and engineering including Aga Khan University and Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institution of Science and Technology.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Minhasuddin, district monitoring officer Mohammad Saleh, principal of Government High School Chitral Kamaluddin and Prof Tanzil also attended the event.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2018