July 16, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 12, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 15: A Senate committee on Tuesday called for gearing up the efforts to check the rapid population growth with a view to striking a balance between the population and the resources.

The Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development and Population Welfare, which met here under the chairmanship of Senator Saeed Ahmed Hashmi, observed that things were moving at a snail’s pace.

The committee took serious note of the lack of coordination between the federal and provincial population welfare departments, and said it had seriously hampered the provision of family planning services on the doorstep of the people.

“The outreach has to be expanded and quality of services be improved for achieving better results,” it maintained.

The committee observed that unchecked growth of population was creating many socio-economic problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and environmental degradation, besides increase in crime.

Some members of the committee suggested that the monitoring mechanism should be improved to achieve the desired results. They pointed out that importance of small family norm was not being highlighted properly.

According to them, the actual figure of the population growth was much higher than the one being projected by the ministry. They urged the government to take appropriate action in view of the gravity of the situation.

“The population bomb is ticking and it has to be defused before it is too late,” they said.

The committee underlined the need to avail the services of Ulema and religious leaders besides the electronic media to enhance awareness among the people about the hazards of unchecked population growth.

It suggested that more attention should be paid on enhancing female literacy rate throughout the country, and stressed that population welfare funds should be utilised properly.

It was noted that poor human development and social indicators reflected a dismal situation and desperate efforts were needed to reverse the tide.

Earlier, the population ministry secretary informed the committee about the steps being taken to check the rising trend in population.

He said the rapid population growth contributed to the environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources.

He said funds had been approved for 20 projects in the PSDP 2008-09, adding that nine new schemes would be launched to increase the outreach of the population welfare services at the grass-roots level.

According to him, public-private partnership is being encouraged and the civil society organisations were being involved to provide quality services to the poor and unserved population in rural areas and urban slums.

Minister for Population Welfare Humayun Kurd said the government would launch more programmes and streamline efforts for activating population welfare centres.