FAISALABAD/LAHORE - Two new polio cases have been reported in Khushab and Faisalabad districts taking death toll due to disease to 76 across the country this year.
According to media reports, polio virus was diagnosed positive in Joharabad, Khushab and Ameenpur Bangla of Faisalabad district.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his annoyance over recent reports of increasing polio cases in the country.
The sources said that the PM issued directions to the concerned ministry and officials to devise comprehensive strategy to expedite anti-polio drive to ensure complete elimination of viral diseases from the country.
According to health ministry, four new tests have confirmed polio virus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Madiha, 3, from MamaKhel area of Tehsil Bannu, Mitha Khel's Haleema, 2, Laiba, 2 and Ilyas, 2, of Miranshah have been tested positive for polio virus.
The news enraged the prime minister, who later directed health ministry to carry out effective campaign against polio. Sharif also advised the provincial governments to take strict measures to halt polio spread.
Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif also took notice of detection of the recent cases in Joharabad and Aminpur Bangla and sought a report from Secretary Health. The Chief Minister said that a complete report be furnished to him regarding these cases.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of Punjab Health Department on Sunday said that no polio case has so far been reported in Punjab during the current year. The spokesman clarified that a 5-year-old girl Ruqayya of Joharabad and two and a half year old boy Imtiaz of Aminpur Bangla are reportedly suffering from acute Flacid Paralysis.
The CM also took notice of suicide of a rape victim in Sargodha and sought a report from IG Punjab.
He directed that the culprits involved in the incident be immediately arrested while stern action should be taken against the police officials who hindered the process of justice.
The chief minister assured that justice will be provided to the affected family at any cost.
292 UCs OF LAHORE at high
risk for polio
The Extended Programme for Immunization (EPI) of Health Department of Punjab has declared 292 union councils of different districts at high risk for polio cases in Punjab. 
Talking to APP here on Sunday, Additional Director of the EPI Dr Nazir Hussain said that recently an anti-polio drive had been launched in the high-risk UCs.
He said that despite some cases of polio, the country would be polio free at the end of the current year 2014. He said that last year over 22 rounds of anti-polio drives were conducted in which millions of children up to five years were administered anti-polio drops.
Responding to a question about the strategy to deal polio in the high risk places, he said that over 63 permanent transit posts had been established at high risk  places including railway stations, bus stands, shrines and the border of Punjab with other provinces including at Punjab-KP border areas where vaccinators administered anti-polio drops to children throughout the year.
He said that the EPI department was also focusing on migrant places and madrissas where children from other provinces come to Punjab for religious studies and employment purposes.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared a ‘public health emergency’ at the start of May after new polio cases began surfacing and spreading across borders from countries including Pakistan.
The disease remains endemic in the country, which is responsible for 80 per cent of polio cases diagnosed around the world this year. Pakistan saw 91 cases last year, up from 58 in 2012. Polio continues to surface, mainly in the tribal areas along the Afghan border and Karachi.