Zubair Qureshi
Population is the center stage of all national development and national security is not possible without human security.
Political parties must leverage the existing cross-party consensus on attaining sustainable population growth in Pakistan and advocate for inclusion of critical areas of health and family planning in their party manifestos.
These views were expressed by the parliamentarians while addressing a Parliamentary Forum on Population.
Population Council with support of the United Nations Population Fund had organized the meeting to call on national and provincial parliamentary leaders for political support on important population and development issues.
In her welcome remarks, Dr Zeba Sathar, Country Director Population Council 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.
Dr Bakhtior Kadirov, Country Representative a.i. UNFPA 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, Zmarak Khan, Balochistan Food Minister said members of the Parliamentary Forum on Population must initiate parliamentary debates on population, review 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.
Member Balochistan Assembly Sanaullah Baloch said the government must focus on alternate political strategies to de-link population size with ‘three Rs’ namely: Representation, Resources and Revenue which impedes country’s development on achieving sustainable population growth.
Javaid Manwa, Finance Minister, Gilgit-Baltistan stressed that the government must focus on stronger and effective legislative and administrative measures to reduce high fertility rates particularly in less developed areas of Gilgit-Baltistan.
