HYDERABAD, April 25: Speakers at a one-day seminar on population and development have said that if the rising population graph is not checked, it will undermine all future planning and projects, badly affecting progress and prosperity.

Speaking at the seminar organized by the Sindh population welfare department at a local hotel on Saturday, provincial population welfare minister Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh said that his department was contacting people at grass-roots level to create awareness among them in this regard.

He said that no population ministry could do anything without participation of the people and added that district and taluka Nazims should hold meetings with the department officials while women should come forward to organize orientation programmes in rural areas.

Punjab population welfare minister Naseem Lodhi, agreeing with Mr Sheikh, said that provision of basic health and education facilities were directly linked with population and added that Pakistan was counted among the low-income countries because of the ever-increasing population. The seminar was informed that there was an increase of around 770,000 individuals every year in Sindh, bringing the population growth rate to 2.06 per cent.