Gillani calls for coordinated efforts to manage alarming population growth

Liaquat Ali

Islamabad: Acting President Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani on Friday called for coordinated efforts with the input of the provincial governments, including the Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, to manage the growing population in the country.

He said that the challenge of growing population needed collective efforts, especially the support of the provinces, to successfully implement the national action plan on population.

The acting president expressed these views while chairing a meeting on population management in the backdrop of the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s 2018 suo-moto action and the subsequent recommendations of the Council of Common Interests.

Secretary of Ministry of Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Dr Nadeem Mehbub, Director General Population Wing, Dr Soofia Yunus, and senior officials of the Ministry of Health attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Gillani stressed the need to reduce the population growth rate and improve other relevant population indicators. He said that all stakeholders, including the provincial governments and the private sector, needed to be taken on board to raise awareness about the challenge of rising population. He also emphasised the need to increase people’s access to family planning services to fulfil their unmet needs.

During the meeting, it was informed that a National Action Plan on Population was implemented from 2019 to 2024, and a revised National Action Plan on Population from 2025 to 2030 had been developed in consultation with the provinces. It was further informed that the new plan was awaiting approval and would be discussed in the upcoming meeting of the Federal Task Force on Population.