HYDERABAD, Oct 7 The government of Sindh has decided to appoint Ulema for creating awareness among people about population welfare programme and other schemes launched for mother and child health care.

This was stated by Director-General of the population welfare department Bashir Mangi at a one-day seminar on the “Involvement of male / female religious leaders on population and development issues” here on Thursday. The department organised the event in collaboration with UNFPA.

He said that in the first phase of the programme, nine districts Karachi, Dadu, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Sukkur, Jacobabad, Sanghar, Thatta and Larkana - had been identified where Ulema would be appointed at the union-council level.Rest of the districts would be included in the scheme in the second phase, Mr Mangi said, adding that the department was also planning to publish a book on 'Population Welfare Programme & Islam' that would be included in the syllabus of Madressahs.

In his keynote address, Additional Secretary of Population Welfare Syed Ashfaq Ali Shah said that rapid growth in population had created many socio-economic problems even in the developed countries.

He said that Pakistan was at number six among the countries where population was increasing fast.

He said that 4.820 million children were being born yearly in Pakistan and 1.290 million of them expired soon after birth. He said that 97 per cent people were aware of family planning, but 30 per cent did not practice it.

He said that yearly rate of population growth had been reported at 2.5 per cent which according to him was high and must be brought down. He said that the government alone could not succeed in its programmes, adding that public participation and awareness and teaching of opinion leaders were essential.

Representative of UNFPA Mr Tariq Masood said that family planning was not prohibited in the teachings of Islam.

He said awareness about this programme must be created in society for achieving goals of development. He said that the United Nations was spending $ 2.7 million yearly to make the family programme a success in Pakistan.

Dr Shahnaz Shahalwani, who was representing the United Nation in the seminar, said that breast-feeding could protect the new-born babies from many diseases as mother's milk was rich with nutrition.

Allama Muhammad Irfan Chishti said that the family planning programme was according to the teachings of Islam in the sense to bring family members in a disciplinary fold.

He said that a disciplined family could easily face socio-economic challenges. Misunderstanding about the clash between Islamic ideology and family welfare programme must be removed, he said.