President chairs meeting to evolve strategy to check population growth in Pakistan

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 6 (APP):President Dr Arif Alvi chaired 3rd meeting of the Federal Task Force on Alarming Population Growth in Pakistan held here on Thursday to evolve strategy to lower population growth in the country.

The meeting extensively discussed various proposals to contain the increasing population.

All the provincial governments, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan, briefed the meeting about the steps taken by them about family planning.
The provinces informed they had been taking serious measures to check increasing population.

The meeting agreed to seek the cooperation of media and Ulema to play their role in educating the people about the implications of fast-growing population, a press release issued by the President’s Media Office said.

In order to create public awareness, the meeting underscored the need to launch national campaign on family planning and reproductive health through print, electronic and social media.

It emphasized that all the provincial governments needed to seek support of Ulema to sensitize the people about the importance of family planning.

The meeting tasked the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, and Council of Islamic Ideology to convene a meeting of the Ulema within a month to seek their cooperation with regard to the population growth.

It also directed the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination to study population models of the countries, which have succeeded in controlling their population and submit report to the task force based on the findings.

The meeting stressed the need to integrate family planning and primary health care services to achieve the objectives of family planning.

It also recommended increase in the funds for family planning-related programmes.
The president assured that he would ask the prime minister to increase funds in that regard.

He advised the provincial governments to include mother and child healthcare in their education curriculum. He also all the federal and provincial governments to implement the decisions of the task force on fast-track basis so as to check growing population.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Noor ul Haq Qadri, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, Special Assistant to the PM (SAPM) for Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection/Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Dr Sania Nishtar, SAPM for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan, Caretaker GB CM Mir Afzal, Council of Islamic Ideology Chairman Prof. Dr. Qibla Ayaz, Sindh Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, Balochistan Chief Secretary Capt. (R) Fazeel Asghar, Country Director Population Council Islamabad Dr Zeba Sathar, Representative UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Ms Lina Mousa, and provincial ministers and secretaries of population welfare departments.

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