KARACHI, Dec 14: The Federal minister for Population Welfare, Chaudhry Shabaz Hussain, said on Tuesday the government would hold an international ulema conference in March
next to get input with regard to formulation of a national population welfare policy; one which matched the local socio-economic, religious and cultural variables.
He was talking to newsmen after attending the inaugural session of a three-day international conference on "Sharing Population and Development Research across South and West Asia" at the University of Karachi.
The minister said that eminent religious scholars from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Iran, Morocco and other countries would be invited to share their views on population, family planning and development. This would be in special reference to a Muslim society, so that Pakistan can benefit from their experiences in implementing its plan envisaging a reduced family.
He said that conference and crash courses would also be held in the province, involving religious leaders, political groups, teachers, labour leaders and councillors for creating awareness about the benefits of better family planning and alienation of misperceptions on the issue.
To a question, the minister said that he personally felt that only a smaller portion of over 600 NGOs working in the population welfare sector were performing up to the mark. "Most of the other NGOs are concentrating on main cities and are not ready to work in small cities or rural areas, which was unacceptable to the government," he said.
It was why, he said that the government would shortly be reviewing the effectiveness of NGOs working in population welfare and extension of productive health facilities by them to the masses, and take remedial measures, the minister pointed out.
He said his ministry had not recommended inclusion of subjects on population or family planning in the curricula, as it was the domain of the education ministry. "I personally feel the Pakistani society has yet to create a temperament for education on sex to children in schools and colleges," he remarked.
Earlier, speaking as the chief guest at the conference, the population welfare minister said that most developing countries were currently passing through a demographic transition, which called for a review of their population policies.
He said the fertility rate could be brought down to the desired limit only if issues like poverty, gender, health and status of women were adequately addressed through population and other development policies.
He said the government of Pakistan had recently finalized a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy paper in consultation with all stakeholders, which was aligned with the millennium development goals.
He informed the audience that the Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (PRSP) recognized population factor as one of the major cross cutting issues. "The PRSP identifies the challenges ahead and carries forward major policy objectives and initiatives undertaken by the government, providing a framework for development efforts and poverty reduction based on strong political commitment under the leadership of the president and prime minister of Pakistan."
