AJK To Give Result-oriented Progress On Population Control Programme: AJK PM

MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jun, 2019 ) : Jun 25 (APP):Emphasizing upon the individual and collective efforts for ensuring the population control in the country including Azad Jammu Kashmir.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan Tuesday said that the population control was imperative for ensuring the emergence of healthy and prosperous society.

"Azad Jammu and Kashmir was already acting upon an integrated population welfare programme and the state was always prepared to give a result-oriented progress to this direction", he said while inaugurating a grand day-long conference on population welfare programme in AJK's metropolis on Tuesday.

The conference, organized by population programme wing (PPW) of Ministry of National Health Service R & C Islamabad, was hosted by Population Welfare Department of AJK with the financial assistance of the UNFPA.

The grand moot was addressed among others by the chief host, Secretary Population Welfare Department of AJK Government Raja Muhammad Razzaque Khan, Minister for Population Welfare AJK Mustafa Bashir Abbasi, Secretary Population Welfare GB Zahid Ali Abbasi, Abdul Ghafaar Khan, Head of Technical Wing, Minister for Health KPK Ehtesham Inam Ullah, Advisor / Health Expert of Family Wing Dr Yasmeen Qazi, Sahid Ali Abbasi, Secretary Population Welfare Sindh government, Tariq Masood from Government of Balochistan and others.

Speakers tabled various healthy suggestions to address the alarming population growth in Pakistan. under the spirit of the national action plan of the CCI. They called for the involvement of the civil society besides the health sector to produce quality results of the population control and welfare programme.

"The overall growth rate of due controlled population in AJK is much better as compared to Pakistan", it was told by experts in the conference.

Speakers called for devising a national policy in Pakistan to ensure smallest family like in China. "Ulema and religious scholars should particularly be taken into confidence to make the population welfare programme fully successfully", they suggested with recommendations for putting focus on Primary healthcare facilities across the country.

In his detailed address to the conference, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Khan called for launching the country-wide population welfare programme through involving Ulema and religious scholars. He said that a small family could prove to be source of producing and promoting an honorable human being in any of the society.

The prime minister observed that all basic required aspects for a prosperous, secured and healthy life could be ensured only through taking full care of necessities of life including security of food and water for survival of the population. He termed the delivery of education the basic tool to raise awareness among the people about their individual role in ensuring the smallest-possible family.

He underlined that increased population in Pakistan including AJK was always permanent threat to the sincere endeavours of the state for ensuring progressive and prosperous society. He pointed out that in 1947 West Pakistan was comprising the population of only about 30 million which has now raised to 210 million according to the census conducted in 2017.

Farooq Haider emphasized the need for the grant of due empowerment and honorable status to women in our country. "We cannot move ahead to the path of progress and prosperity in true perspective unless women were granted due respectable status in the country", he urged.

The prime minister disclosed that 3300 of lady healthy workers have been brought into the normal budget in Azad Jammu Kashmir under the spirit of encouraging and ensuring the population welfare programme across the state.

Earlier, in his address of welcome, Secretary Population Welfare Department of AJK Raja Muhammad Razaaque said that the conference will, indeed, add a new lively spirit for ongoing efforts for population management in Pakistan as well as in AJK.

Razaqque said that the rapid growth of population in Pakistan has emerged as serious challenge both for the policy makers as well as the policy implementers.

He revealed that at present, as per Population and Housing Census 2017, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with a population of 207.8 million growing at a rate of 2.4% annually between 1998-2017. At this rate, Pakistan's population will double in the next 30 years, compared with an average doubling time of 60 years for other South Asian countries. The population of the country is projected to increase to 285 million by 2030.

Secretary Population Welfare AJK further said that such a high level of population growth was unsustainable and has already eaten into the modest gains made in terms of socio-economic development. The rapidly growing population has direct negative implications for adverse climate change, environment degradation, deforestation and above all, the decline in water availability per capita, putting Pakistan in water stress situation. Besides, It will also aggravate food security and threaten the country's sustainable development prospects.

"The unmet need for Family Planning Services remains high at 17% indicating that millions of married couples are unable to receive adequate access to information and services to have the number of children. This is a denial of fundamental human right. This gap between their intent and actual usage of family planning services is associated with long physical distances, costs and social barriers and in particular, with misperception about modern contraceptives which are more pronounced in the rural areas. All these access factors affect the poor and uneducated more seriously", the population welfare secretary said.

Razaq said that poor state of affairs regarding population planning in Pakistan, was seriously taken notice of by the Supreme Court of Pakistan as Human Rights Case in 2018, regarding alarming high population growth rate in the country, the apex court inter alia termed, 'the steadily increasing population rate in Pakistan is a ticking bomb which will certainly not wait till it is convenient for us to take note of it.'"I also avail this opportunity to share that as a part of global efforts, during London Summit on Family Planning, 2012 (FP2020), Pakistan along with more than 20 governments made commitments to address the policy, financing, delivery and socio-cultural barriers to women, accessing for reproductive health in purposeful manners. In order to review the progress on this account, Pakistan has set up a Country Engagement Working Group (CEWG) comprising Secretaries/DGs of Health and Population Departments of the Provinces and Regions, representatives of NHS, P,D&R Division, International Development Partners, representatives of Civil Society and the Private sector. The CEWG meets on quarterly basis; Provincial and Regional Governments host its meetings on rotation basis. While Government of AJK was privileged to host this extra-ordinary important conference in the state's metropolis Tuesday", Razaaque observed.