Call for reining in population growth

Speakers urge political parties to include family planning in their manifestos

ISLAMABAD:

Speakers have called for reining in the population explosion for sustainable development.

Speaking at the sixth meeting Parliamentary Forum on Population (PFP), arranged by the Population Council with support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Islamabad to call on national and provincial parliamentary leaders for political support on important population and development issues, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Mushahid Hussain said that sustainable population growth is central to Pakistan’s development and national security is not possible without human security. He said that political parties must leverage the existing cross-party consensus on attaining sustainable population growth in Pakistan and advocate for the inclusion of critical areas of health and family planning in their party manifestos

Members of the Senate, legislators from the national and provincial assemblies, and a regional body of Gilgit-Baltistan representing all major political parties attended the meeting. The Parliamentary Forum on Population is a cross-party platform to raise parliamentary awareness of population and development, sustain cross-party political commitment and advocate for population stabilization.

Population Council Country Director Dr Zeba Sathar highlighted key areas of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) action plan on reducing population growth and urged parliamentarians to advocate for increased and more effective financial resources at the federal and provincial levels to improve family planning programs. She further added prioritizing population planning through legislation is an effective policy approach to bend the population curve.

UNFPA Country Representative Dr Bakhtior Kadirov said that the parliamentarians’ role is pivotal in moving the population welfare agenda forward. He presented the highlights of UNFPA’s Pakistan country programme that strategizes assisting the federal and provincial governments on partnership building, policy advocacy and improved governance in reducing unmet need for family planning, reducing preventable maternal deaths and gender-based violence.

Presenting the action plan for Parliamentary Year on Population, Balochistan Food Minister Zmarak Khan said members of the Parliamentary Forum on Population must initiate parliamentary debates on population, review the implementation status of the CCI decisions at the district and provincial levels to improve family planning programs, advocate for enhancing finances and leverage media’s role to highlight population issues.

Members present endorsed the action plan for 2022 as the parliamentary year of the population with emphasis on greater financing for reproductive health, enhancing access to family planning services for poor and marginalized women through voucher schemes and promoting the new national narrative on the population that calls for striking a balance in family size and between population size and resources.

The meeting also featured a panel discussion on the role of legislators in centering population and development on the political agenda. Moderating the panel dialogue. K-P Assembly Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan said Pakistan could learn from successful family planning programs of neighbouring and regional countries. He said parliamentarians must make massive efforts for sustained political commitment to expand access to family planning services through increased investment, strong legislation and awareness and advocacy on population services.

Member Balochistan Assembly Sanaullah Baloch said that the government must focus on alternate political strategies to de-link population size with the ‘three Rs’ namely: representation, resources and revenue which impede the country’s development on achieving sustainable population growth.

MNA Romina Alam stressed advocating for reducing the alarming population growth by highlighting its cross-sectoral impact on other areas of life particularly water emergencies and food insecurity. She emphasized parliamentarians engage young people from their constituencies and stressed the need for empowering young people through health, skilled education and gainful employment.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2022.