PM urges population-resource balance

Shehbaz says population planning must be aligned with national development

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday stressed that maintaining a balance between population growth and available resources was essential for sustainable development, saying that rapid population growth was placing increasing pressure on national resources and posing a major challenge to the country's progress.

Chairing a high-level meeting on population welfare, the prime minister said population planning must be aligned with national development, economic stability and the improvement of human resources, the Prime Minister's Office Media Wing said in a press release.

He directed the authorities to convene the inaugural meeting of the National Population Council at the earliest and instructed that its organisational structure be finalised without delay to facilitate effective policymaking on population-related issues.

The meeting was attended by Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Finance and Revenue Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar, Minister of State for Finance and Railways Bilal Azhar Kayani, and senior government officials.

The prime minister announced that he would personally chair the National Population Council, which will comprise the chief ministers of all four provinces, the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan and other key stakeholders.

During the meeting, participants were briefed on the country's rising population and measures aimed at population control and welfare.

The briefing highlighted plans to link social protection programmes with family planning initiatives, while emphasising that women's education and economic empowerment would form a key pillar of the national population strategy.

The meeting was also informed that a nationwide public awareness campaign would be launched to promote balanced population growth and family planning.

Participants were further apprised that successful population management programmes were currently being implemented in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran.

According to the briefing, the National Population Council, in collaboration with provincial governments, will help implement an effective nationwide population welfare campaign.

It was further informed that the Council's Secretariat will be established in the Ministry of Planning.