Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed to convene the first meeting of the National Population Council as soon as possible, describing the growing population as a pressure on national resources and a major challenge to development.
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, an important meeting was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif regarding population welfare, where he said that a balance between resources and population is the only guarantee of sustainable development. The rapidly growing population is increasing pressure on national resources and is a major challenge for development.
He said that population planning needs to be aligned with national development, economic stability and improvement of human resources.
The Prime Minister directed to convene the inaugural meeting of the National Population Council as soon as possible and to formulate the organizational structure of the National Population Council as soon as possible for formulating population-related policies at the national level.
The National Population Council will be headed by the Prime Minister himself, the National Population Council will include the Chief Ministers of all four provinces, the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan and other stakeholders.
On this occasion, the meeting was briefed on the country’s growing population and measures regarding control and welfare, in which it was stated that social security programs will be linked to family planning, education of women and their economic empowerment will be an important part of the population control strategy.
It was informed in the briefing that an effective awareness campaign will be launched on population balance and control, successful population control programs are being run in Islamic countries Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran, the National Population Council will be helpful in running an effective campaign at the national level with the cooperation of provincial governments and the Secretariat of the National Population Council will be the Ministry of Planning.
The meeting was attended by Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Minister of State for Finance and Railways Bilal Azhar Kayani and senior government officials concerned.