The local administration on Wednesday registered a case at Faisal Town police station against superstar Fawad Khan after his family refused to administer an anti-polio team from giving drops to his daughter, said a spokesperson.
Four of the cases have been filed and two at the Model Town police station.
Meanwhile, Spokesperson of Prime Minister’s Polio taskforce Babar Bin Ata has maintained that he has been told “Mrs. Fawad thinks getting their daughter immunised from UK will give the child protection against WPV1 strain. Protection against Wild Poliovirus can only be guaranteed with Oral Polio Vaccine.”
The government representative alleged that the Lahore Deputy Commissioner told him that Fawad’s driver and family misbehaved with the anti-polio team since yesterday.
“Fawad is our pride, I request him to allow teams to vaccinate the child. Lahore has had a polio case last week, we must protect the child,” he tweeted.
The development has come at the time when the government has admitted that active poliovirus transmissions were recorded in as many as eight cities of the country.
“We have seen active transmission in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar, Bannu, Killa Abdullah and Pishin,” said Ata.
“It has been widely reported that an FIR has been registered against Fawad Khan stating that he on the 19th of February interfered with governmental efforts to vaccinate his daughter at his residence. Nothing could be further from the truth as neither of the parents were home at the time of visit by the anti-polio team,” read a statement issued by the superstar’s media team.
“Fawad Khan has been outside Pakistan since the 13th of February, where he performed at the PSL opening ceremony in Dubai and is presently in the United States. His travel history clearly demonstrates the manufactured nature of the FIR and he has just come to know of the FIR through the press.”
It further said: “Fawad Khan fully supports the anti-polio drive and is very well aware of the guidelines of WHO and CDC. The vaccination of Fawad’s daughter is up to date and the record there to support the same is available.”
The statement further said that Fawad reserves the right for appropriate legal redress, including all such remedies against any damages caused by this event, should the FIR not be cancelled.
In 2018 as many as ten polio cases were confirmed from the country, while the number of polio cases in 2017 was seven and in 2016 the number was at 20.
