ISLAMABAD, April 9: The federal minister for Population Welfare on Monday said that the ministry was encouraging a public-private partnership strategy to create awareness about population-related issues among masses.

“The project would go a long way in creating (a) balance between population size and resources, which would usher in quality life to masses,” the minister, Chaudhry Shehbaz Hussain, observed while briefing mediapersons about the ministry’s public- private partnership programme.

He said under the programme, the ministry had forged a partnership with several public and private sector organisations to achieve the desired targets of population welfare.

Elaborating, he said some of these organisations, such as the All Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, the army, the air force, the navy, the Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan Ordnance Factories (Wah), Railways, Pakistan International Airlines and Steel Mills, had agreed to pursue the programme through mutual cooperation.

He said the ministry had trained ulema as opinion-leaders on population-related issues and hoped the population growth rate would be reduced to 1.3 per cent by 2020.

He said the ministry was only offering the masses the right to choose and create a balance between their resources and family size not persuade them to maintain a two-children family, as was their emphasis in the past.

He urged the media to play its role in creating awareness, specially at the grassroots level, about the negative implications of over-population.

“Like training, being imparted to ulema and the awareness programmes that reach the public, the joint ventures will enable us to convey our message more effectively,” the minister hoped.

He said that out of 21,000 male and female ulema, some 11,000 would start their work from July this year.

He said these trained ulema would also be allocated allowances in the next budget.

He also urged the private sector to join hands with the ministry to control the rapid increase in population.

He said a priority area of the Population Welfare Programme was strengthening of the Public Private Sector Organizations (PPSOs).

He said the emphasis on PPSOs partnership was aimed at encouraging the predominant male workforce, of around 41 million, in the reproductive age group, for adopting small family norms.

—Agencies