PESHAWAR: Minister for health Shaukat Ali Yousafzai has said that the provincial government is committed to reducing infant mortality rate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Speaking at a seminar on nutrition here on Tuesday, he said that the mortality rate of children under five years would also be reduced by addressing the problem of malnutrition in the province with the support of development partners.

The seminar was arranged by Save the Children in collaboration with development partners for nutrition. Parliamentarians from the ruling and opposition parties, development partners for nutrition and members of Child Rights Movement attended the function.

On this occasion, the parliamentarians pledged their support to address the issue of malnutrition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Director advocacy Arshad Mehmood, Dr Pervez Iqbal Paracha and Dr Qaiser Alam highlighted different aspects of the nutrition programme of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its importance, including role of parliamentarians in improving nutrition situation, challenges of malnutrition, role of civil society and the measures needed to tackle this issue on priority basis.

Addressing the seminar, Mr Yousafzai lauded the role of Save the Children for holding the briefing on nutrition and emphasised arranging the follow-up meetings. He said that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was in the process of preparing an integrated provincial nutrition strategy.

He said that the ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection of Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Bill, 2013’ was in the final stage and it would be presented in the provincial assembly in its coming session. He stated that the assembly was also going to enact the food safety bill in the next session.

The provincial government is also introducing incentives to motivate people to complete vaccination of their children, the health minister said, adding that every family doing so would be given Rs1,000.