The unsustainable population growth effects adversely on the socio-economic wellbeing of the people and to create awareness among them regarding this was direly needed, said Federal Minster for Information and Technology, Shibli Faraz on Wednesday.
“There is an urgent need to create awareness among the masses about the consequences of unsustainable population growth on the socio-economic wellbeing of the people”. This was stated by the Federal Minister for Information & Technology, Shibli Faraz at the fifth meeting of the Parliamentary Forum on Population (PFP) here. He was addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Forum on Population (PFP) which was organized by the Population Council in joint collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It was attended by legislators from across the country. The federal minister, who is also the chairman of the PFP, said on the occasion that the unsustainable population deprives people of equitable opportunities for accessing health, education, nutrition, gainful employment and leading a prosperous life.
Legislators from all the key major political parties from both federal and provincial level declared 2022 to be the parliamentary year of population and pledged to work across all assemblies for prioritizing population management as way for achieving sustainable development. Welcoming the legislators, Dr Zeba Sathar, Country Director of the Population Council said that the legislators must play their role in moving legislation in the respective assemblies to support efforts for stabilization of population growth rate. She said that the new narrative on population that calls for a balance between population and resources must be propagated and used for creating greater awareness among the masses regarding the importance of population planning. Addressing the participants, Senator Mushahid Husain, Secretary General of the PFP said “Population and health has taken center stage post Covid-19 era and it’s high time for Pakistan to start population management from grassroot level by integrating population management agenda in local government frameworks across the country.” He stressed legislators to propagate new national narrative from all available forums. He further added prioritizing population planning through National Assembly, Senate and all provincial assemblies is an effective policy approach to bend the population curve.
MNA Maryam Aurangzeb, said that parliamentarians should focus on the new narrative of population Tawazun in year 2022. She stressed on formulating an integrated strategy to tackle rapid population growth which must include religious scholars, civil society, health professionals and media. She also stressed the need of setting tangible goals for year 2022, chalking out national charter of population and executive ownership of population management at the federal, provincial and local government levels. Member of provincial assembly from Punjab, Dr. Mazhar Iqbal, who is also PFP’s convenor for the Punjab province, informed the participants that with the support of MPAs from all political parties, he will submit a resolution in Punjab Assembly to demand from the government to prioritize population management and use technology at the BHUs and community levels to monitor the family planning service delivery and budget expenditures. In his address Gilgit-Baltistan’s Finance Minister Javed A. Manwa said data availability is crucial for evidenced based policy making as far as provision of family planning services and overcoming rapid population growth is concerned. GB government has started a new data collection regime to overcome this problem and is committed to work for achieving sustainable population goal.
