MIRPUR (AJK): Speakers of an awareness raising seminar held here late Thursday emphasized the need to address the challenges of a rapidly increasing population.
The seminar was organized by the AJK Population Welfare Department in collaboration with the United Nations agency for population welfare – UNFPA.
Speakers included AJK minister for Power Development and Energies Ch. Arshad Hussain, Commissioner Mirpur Division Ch. Shoukat, Director General Population Welfare Department of AJK Zeashan Arif, District Population Welfare Officer Kamran Choudhry, Director General Auqaf AJK Hafiz Nazir Ahmed Qadri, District Mufti Abdul Ghafaar Selfi, Moulana Iftikhar Ahmed Hashmir, Prof. Dr. Saima Kousar, Afeera Javed from Mirpur University, veteran Kashmiri writer and intellectual A H Nizami and others.
Speakers lauded the AJK Population Welfare Department for organizing the seminar to understand the challenges of rapid population growth and its consequences, including but not limited to sustainable development, national economy and GDP.
According to the Population and Housing Census 2017 — Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with a population of 207.8 million which grew at a tercentennial growth rate of 2.4% per annum between 1998 – 2017. As a result, the country has emerged as the fifth most populous country. At this rate, Pakistan’s population will double in the next 30 years, compared with an average doubling time of 60 years for other South Asian countries.
Speakers said that such a high level of population growth was unsustainable and had already eaten into the modest gains made in terms of socio-economic development.
“We must be cognizant that the rapidly growing population has direct negative implications for adverse climate change, environmental degradation, deforestation and above all, the decline in water availability per capita — putting Pakistan in a water stress situation. Besides, it will also aggravate food security and threaten the country’s sustainable development prospects”, they underlined.
“The unmet need for Family Planning Services remains high at 17% indicating that millions of married couples are unable to receive adequate access to information and services regarding the number of children and the spacing they desire”, speakers said.
Addressing the ceremony Director General AJK State Department of Population Welfare Zeashan Arif recalled that during the London Summit on Family Planning, 2012 (FP2020) Pakistan along with more than 20 governments made commitments to address the policy, financing, delivery and socio-cultural barriers to ease women’s access to reproductive health in purposeful manners.
“I am quite hopeful that today’s congregation will recommend decisive and cogent measures and will leave policy guidelines to be followed by all stakeholders to cope with this serious challenge and to achieve the objectives in real spirit”, the DG Population Welfare Department added.