LAHORE, July 25: Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool has said the shortage of educational and health facilities as well as food and water can never be overcome till the rate of population growth is contained.

He was speaking at a convention on “Poverty, population and development” organized here by the Punjab Population Welfare Department to mark the World Population Day. The day was observed all over the world on July 11.

The governor said efforts were being made by the provincial departments concerned to promote family planning and population welfare programmes.

In the last two decades, he said the Punjab had made great progress in almost every field of life but still there remained shortage of everything because population continued to increase more rapidly.

He said the federal government had recently devolved family planning and population welfare programmes at provincial level because the issues needed to be addressed at local level.

He said around 30,000 lady health workers were motivating couples to keep their family size small to alleviate poverty.

He said the government had provided family planning as well as mother and child health service besides immunization against deadly diseases in every village of the province. World agencies were also helping to combat the menace of diseases and population explosion.

He appreciated ulema for spreading the family planning programmes at grassroots level. He said society was also responsive to incidents around them as it was evident in the Meerwala case and the Diyat case in Mianwali.

Earlier, Punjab Health Minister Prof Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry said the average birth rate in the province was decreasing and the challenge ahead was to sustain it.

He said 34 per cent population still had no access to the health and family planning service. The population control was as important as defence and water management, he added.

He said people must have a confidence that their children would be treated at a nearby health centre.

He said the Punjab government had recently strengthened health service at village level by appointing doctors. He claimed that 75 per cent BHUs had so far been made functional while family planning services were being offered at 45 per cent BHUs. Lahore district Nazim Mian Amir Mahmood said lack of education particularly among girls was the major factor in increase in population.

UNFPA country representative Dr Olivier Brasseur said there were around 350 million couples in the world, including six million in the Punjab, who still have no access to affordable family planning service. It was high time that Pakistan should control the population and reduce poverty and mother and infant mortality rates.

He said the reproductive health service should be improved at least at district headquarters level. The government should also involve private sector in its pursuit to control population.

Punjab population welfare department secretary Javed Malik, Family Planning Association of Pakistan vice-president Asad Ali Shah and Dr Samina Hamdani also spoke on the occasion.