KARACHI, April 14: Speakers at a function here on Sunday urging the masses to adopt family planning methods said that economic progress in the country was being neutralized by the explosive population growth.
The meeting was organized by the Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP) for orientation of the local government representatives on reproductive health and family planning.
The speakers said because of the poor health services, one child below the age of a year died every two minutes, and every 16 minutes a women died of delivery or pregnancy-related complications.
They said that the developed countries spent substantial amounts on their healthcare system, but in Pakistan less than 1 per cent of the GDP was being spent for the purpose. Studies have shown that chances of infant mortality increase by 50 per cent if the mother dies after delivery.
Federal Information Minister Nisar Memon said that the existing 2.2 per cent population growth rate in the country was much higher than that in India (1.8 per cent) and Bangladesh (1.6 per cent).
He said NGOs and civil society organizations should join hands with the government to control the explosive population growth, by which the number of people living below the poverty line was increasing every year.
He said NGOs with assistance from the local government representatives could easily implement the family planning programmes. The government would make efforts to increase the health budget as it gave due importance to women, which was evident from the fact that 33 per cent seats had been reserved for women in the local bodies, he added.
Lauding the support extended by the organizers for the presidential referendum, he said Gen Pervez Musharraf was seeking people’s support to ultimately empower them so that they could solve their problems themselves.
Earlier, Sindh FPAP chief Syed Khadim Ali Shah announced that the organization would support Gen Musharraf in the referendum.
Other speakers said the FPAP, with the help of its 1,300 staff members and over 70,000 volunteers, was extending services through its 3,500 centres and 14 hospitals in the country.
Noor Illahi Arian, UC Soldier Bazaar Nazim M. F. Fazlani, Dr Ali Nawaz Ansari, Dr Hussain Bux Kolachi, Shahnaz Ahad, Haider Shah Taimuri and others also spoke.
KARACHI, April 14: Speakers at a function here on Sunday urging the masses to adopt family planning methods said that economic progress in the country was being neutralized by the explosive population growth.
