Altaf Hamid Rao
“Experts call for population growth rate matching to socio-economic conditions of the country”
MIRPUR, (Parliament Times): The 3-day seminar on population planning concluded here on Wednesday with strong recommendations for the vibrant collective role of all the stake holders including masses besides the State-run health and population welfare service providers to ensure the balanced population growth in Pakistan and AJK matching to the due socio-economic conditions of the country through raising awareness about performance of their due obligations to achieve the national task. The grand event was hosted by the AJK Population Planning Department with the coordination of the UNFPA and Ministry of National Health Services Regulation & Coordination of the Govt. of Pakistan under the spirit of the recent recommendations of Council of Common Interest (CCI) for ensuring the functional integration of the AJK Population Welfare and Health Departments through raising awareness among healthcare service providers to rationalize the population of the country including AJK with available resources. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN organization. The UNFPA says it “is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled”.
Raja Razzaque Secretary Population Welfare Department while addressing the concluding session of the seminar elaborated various connotations and commitments of Govt. of Pakistan made before the international forums where Govt. inter alia, gave assurance for the well being of the married couples. He, in particular, referred Article 16 of the Proclamation of Teheran, 1968 which explicitly provides that ‘the protection of the family and of the child remains the concern of the international community. Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children’. He also gave various references to FP2020, SDGs, ICPD25 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – 1948. He linked family planning in all international instruments, hence, the State is obliged to extend universal access to safe reproductive healthcare services to the parents enabling them to decide freely and responsibly regarding birth spacing and family size, he quoted. Raja Razzaque specifically referred to Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan and quoted the interpretation made by the supreme court.—“Article 9 of the Constitution provides that no person shall be deprived of life or liberty save in accordance with law. The word ‘life’ is very significant as it covers all facets of human existence. The word ‘life’ has not been defined in the Constitution but it does not mean nor can it be restricted only to the vegetative or animal life or mere existence from conception to death. Life includes all such amenities and facilities which a person born in a free country, is entitled to enjoy with dignity, legally and constitutionally.” This he explained while referring to the judgment of Supreme court of Pakistan in a case titled Ms. Shehla Zia and others Vs. WAPDA—PLD 1994 SC 693. He also explained salient features of suo moto case of supreme court of Pakistan regarding alarming population growth in the country. While concluding he emphasised that family planning is not a concession rather a right that has to be facilitated to the parents/married couples by the State.
He recommended for functional integration of family planning services in Health and should redefine the role of population welfare departments. He while highlighting the complexities of procurement of contraceptives through international biddings suggested that federal government should come forward for pool procurement to ensure economy of scale besides guarantying contraceptive commodity security in Pakistan. Similarly he strongly advocated for elimination of gender based violence and supported women empowerment for family planning and social development. Likewise, he underlined for public private partnership by adopting lead role by provincial and federal governments. Prominent among others who addressed the three-day sessions included AJK Population Welfare minister Dr. Mustafa Bashir, Consultant UNFPA Mumtaz Eskar, Medical Superintendent Divisional HQ Hospital Mirpur Dr. Farooq Ahmed Noor, Director Administration Health Services AJK Dr. Tariq Manzoor, Director Population Welfare Department of AJK Muhammad Zeeshan Arif, Assistant Director Kamran Chaudhry, Director Environmental Protection Agency EPA of AJK Govt. Sardar Idress Mahmood and Mirpur District Health Officer Dr. Fida Hussain. Secretary Population Welfare of AJK Raja Razzaque, earlier, gave away certificates to all participants of the event in acknowledgement of their attendance to the exceptional informative congregation primarily related to the negative impacts of the alarming rate of population growth the world over including Pakistan and AJK.