Bill Gates and officials of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) held a meeting with the prime minister who reaffirmed his resolve to completely eradicate polio from the country.

Also read: PM Shehbaza discusses health, financial issues with Bill Gates

The prime minister thanked the BMGF for its longstanding support for polio eradication in the country, and said that a sustained effort was required by all partners to reach the ultimate goal of a polio-free Pakistan

The PM informed the meeting that the federal and provincial governments are working in unison to eradicate polio, noting that five polio eradication campaigns have been conducted in the past six months.

Also read: Melinda quits Bill’s Gates Foundation, receives $12.5b under divorce deal

He highlighted other areas of cooperation with the foundation, including digitisation, saying it would bring huge dividends to Pakistan’s economy.

It is pertinent to mention that in a telephone call with Gates last year, Shehbaz had told the Microsoft co-founder that Pakistan remained committed to ending all forms of polio in the country.

He had earlier met Gates in April on the World Economic Forum summit’s sidelines where he said that Pakistan was working tirelessly to eradicate polio from the country.