Senate passes bill to make vaccination of children compulsory in Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD -- The senate on Monday passed the bill of Senator Ayesha Farooq to give power to the government to make the vaccination for universal immunization of children compulsory in Islamabad capital territory and to protect the health workers designated for immunization programmes.

Senator Ayesha Raza told the upper house that this bill was passed in the past as well but it lapsed in the National Assembly.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Swati supported the bill and said the government would pursue the bill in the National Assembly as well so it could become an act of the parliament.

According to statement of objects and reasons of the bill, in Pakistan, one out of ten children die before they reach their fifth birthday. A large percentage of these children die of diseases which could be prevented through vaccination.

Vaccination coverage in the country remained abysmally low despite a government run vaccination programme that was established in 1978 to provide free of cost vaccination services against...

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