In June 2013, the National Islamic Advisory Group (NIAG) was constituted, and the International Islamic University in Islamabad (IIUI) was given the responsibility to serve as its secretariat. The first NIAG consultation meeting was held 5-6 June, 2013 at IIUI.
The Group held its second gathering on 14 June, 2014, which was followed by the “International Ulema Conference on Polio Eradication”. Scores of Muslim clergymen from Pakistan’s different schools of thought and representatives of the IIFA, OIC, Al- Azhar University and the IsDB participated and issued an Islamabad Declaration in favor of polio and its eradication in the remaining Muslim countries.
Organized by the IIUI on 7 September, 2014 in Karachi. All NIAG members committed to promoting polio immunization, approved a nine-month religious activities plan and set up Provincial Scholars Task Forces (PSTF) for polio reservoirs in Khyber Pakhtunkhah/Federally Administered Tribal Areas (KPK/FATA), and in Quetta and Karachi blocks. The Group’s members offered their religious institutions’ support for the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) and welcomed the concept of opening fixed sites during Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) and routine EPI centers in their religious schools if deemed helpful for the immunization program by Government authorities.
A meeting was held for Karachi and Quetta Blocks, on 20-21 September, 2014, followed by another meeting for KPK and FATA blocks on 24-25 September, 2014. The meetings were hosted by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and supported by IIUI, WHO and UNICEF.
In October 2014, four meetings have been held - two in Karachi, one in Noushera and one in Peshawar – that brought together around 40 editors and journalists of religious publications. As a result, some editors published articles and reports in favor of the polio eradication program.