FAISALABAD, Dec 11: A three-day 4th Annual Population Research Conference concluded here on Thursday with a note that the government should formulate a comprehensive population policy to meet the challenges posed by the alarming increase in population.
The conference on Population Research and Policy Development in Pakistan was jointly organized by the Population Association of Pakistan and the University of Agriculture with the financial assistance of the United Nations Funds for Population and the David Lucile Packard Foundation.
The speakers were of the view that education, creating awareness among the masses and improvement in the health sector were the best ways to control abnormal increase in population.
Dr AR Kemal, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics director, pointed out that the use of accurate and reliable data on population indicators was highly important for framing meaningful and useful policies.
Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin from Columbia University, USA, said that policy makers should take into account the changing demographic trends and make use of new research findings.
Dr Donya Aziz, provincial Parliamentary Population Welfare secretary, emphasized to highlight population issue at every forum and to include the population in all other sectors of the economy.
Provincial Population Welfare Minister Miss Naseem Lodhi underlined the need to integrate research findings in population policy development. She appreciated the efforts of PAP in bringing the population experts and researchers on common forum which would help in improving population policies.
HEALTH CARE: The government is contemplating to launch a gigantic health plan of providing free medicines and pathological test facilities to the people of both rural and urban areas in the country.
This was stated by Federal Health Secretary Ejaz A Rahim while talking to newsmen here after attending a three-day fourth Annual Research Conference on Population and Policy Development in Pakistan on Wednesday night.
He said the infant and mother mortality rate was the highest in Pakistan as compared with neighbouring countries of India and Bangladesh due to lack of resources and training of the public.
Over 30,000 women expired annually during delivery in the country, he said and added that more than 80 percent women passed through the delivery process without the help of medical practitioners and even lady health workers (LHWs) in the country.
A sum of Rs4 billion had been allocated for the population and health programmes out of which Rs2 billion would be spent on the LHV programme.