Special nutritional package announced for expectant mothers

As an important step towards maternal and child health care as well as preventing stunted growth of infants, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Khan Gandapur has decided in principle to provide a special package to expectant mothers in the backward areas of the province.

Under the package, women would be provided with nutrients and food supplements for a specific time period during and after pregnancy. The Chief Minister has underlined the need for pragmatic steps to reduce the prevailing infant mortality rate in the province and decided that the midwifery sector in the province would be further strengthened by aligning it with contemporary needs and requirements, in addition to ensuring strict implementation of the Child Marriage Act of the provincial government.

He was chairing the fourth meeting of the Provincial Population Task Force held at the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar on Tuesday. Provincial cabinet members Arshad Aiyub, Meena Khan Afridi, Faisal Tarakai, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Mishal Yousufzai, Liaqat Ali Khan, Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, Additional Chief Secretary Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, concerned administrative secretaries and officials of the Population Welfare and partner departments attended the meeting. The participants on the occasion unanimously emphasized the need for implementing the law related to making a blood test mandatory in the ‘Nikah Nama’ and directed the authorities to take steps to provide blood testing facilities at the local level for the purpose.

The meeting also urged authorities to ensure easy access for people to the services and facilities of family planning which they also decided to provide at all healthcare centres across the province.

It was also decided to launch a special awareness campaign for the general public to that effect. Besides other initiatives, seminars would be arranged for the awareness of college and university students on the subject. 

A briefing to meeting participants on the demographic aspects of K-P also disclosed that the province’s population growth rate was lower than those of the other provinces.

Addressing the participants, the Chief Minister said that a rapidly growing population was a big challenge not only for K-P but the entire country and that an integrated strategy was needed to deal with the challenge in an efficient and meaningful manner. He said there was a dire need to balance the available resources and population and that the government, partner organizations and the private sector would have to have an integrated approach for the purpose.

He directed that a viable plan be devised for addressing the issues related to maternal and infant mortality and stunted growth, further directing that population welfare centres be established in the areas where healthcare centres are not available.

Later, the Chief Minister also chaired a meeting on the financial issues affecting public sector universities and thoroughly discussed the factors contributing to their financial constraints as well as avenues for making them self-sufficient through effective management and utilization of their properties.

K-P Minister for Higher Education Meena Khan Afridi, Advisor on Finance Muzammil Aslam, Higher Education Secretary Arshad Khan and the Vice Chancellors of public sector universities attended the meeting. 

The Chief Minister constituted a committee comprising the Minister for Higher Education, the Finance Advisor, the Higher Education Secretary, and the representatives of public sector universities of different regions. 

The committee will minutely examine the issues of public sector universities and submit a detailed report to the Chief Minister. It will also submit recommendations to achieve universities’ self-sufficiency. 

The Chief Minister also directed the quarters concerned to ensure payment of salaries for the months of May and June to employees of universities and also directed high-ups at universities to submit their realistic demands, along with the necessary details, to the finance department.

He also directed university heads to work out their needs and plans for the solarization of their institutions in order to cut their exorbitant electricity bills, adding that the provincial government would extend all-out support to them in that regard via a public-private partnership.