RAWALPINDI, (Parliament Times) : Provincial Minister for Primary and Secondary
Healthcare and Population Welfare Punjab Dr. Jamal Nasir has said that the interval of 18 to 24
months in pregnancies is indispensable for the health of mother, child and family, and for the
effective communication of this message in the society, newly married couples should be
registered online with the help of an effective advertising campaign and their counseling in this
regard should be done. He said that all the district and tehsil offices of the Population Welfare
Department should collect regular data on early age marriages in their areas and effective
planning should be done to prevent it because early age marriage is very dangerous for the health
of both mother and child.
He said this on the occasion of his visit to the Rawalpindi District Office of Population
Welfare Department. On this occasion, District Welfare Officer Rawalpindi Shireen Sukhan
gave a briefing to the provincial minister. District officers of Population Welfare Department of
other districts of Rawalpindi Division participated in the meeting.
Provincial Minister Dr. Jamal Nasir said that the Department of Population Welfare
should make an emergency schedule to convey its message to the grassroots level in which to
reach the neglected sections of the society where there is no awareness regarding the interval in
the birth of children.
Provincial Minister Dr. Jamal Nasir said that all resources will be utilized to improve the
performance of the Population Welfare Department and instructions have been issued for the
identification and recruitment of vacant posts. He said that the Department of Population
Welfare will take steps to improve the service structure in Punjab and fulfill the responsibilities
given by the Chief Minister of Punjab to the Ministry of Population Welfare.
Dr. Jamal Nasir said that the officers and officials of the Population Welfare Department
are playing their role in the anti-dengue campaign and that he will meet the representatives of
NGOs soon to solve the problems. He further said that the purpose of celebrating World
Population Day last week was to provide awareness to promote a healthy society. He said that
the health of mother and child should be the first priority because the good health of the mother
affects the health of the coming generation. Positive thinking has to be nurtured at the individual
and collective level.
