January 14, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 23, 1427

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ISLAMABAD Jan 13: Population control is important for sustained economic growth, according to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. He was addressing a seminar on ‘public and private sector collaboration in reproductive health and family planning’ here on Saturday.

Stressing the need for adopting reproductive healthcare and rationalised family planning, Prime Minister Aziz said: "The gains of economic growth are wiped out if population continues to grow unabated as there is a close link between population welfare and economic development."

The prime minister outlined the government’s four-pronged strategy to meet the requirements of population control and said sustainable economic growth was being sought to achieve higher per capita income.

Mr Aziz said if Pakistan’s population continued to grow at the current rate of 1.86 per cent, it would double in 38 years, reaching a staggering 312 million, bringing severe pressure on natural resources, housing, health, education and other amenities.

The prime minister said: "We have to play our part in bridging the gap between knowledge, practice and attitude relating to the importance of males in responsible parenthood by adopting small family norms through the methods of individual voluntary choice."

Minister for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain said that the government was emphasising upon reproductive health services at grass roots level.

He said eight babies were born every minute in the country and the situation required additional $7.3 billion investment to create an additional GNP to keep the per capita income in balance.