Pakistan on Thursday signed a declaration pledging work together with China and other regional countries to control population growth. Social Welfare Minister Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain signed the declaration on behalf of his country at the World Family Summit that concluded at Sanya in South China's Hainan province.
The Declaration noted that the families world-wide are facing major challenges of illiteracy, gender inequality, large maternal and infant mortality, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic and cultural diversity. It called for greater co-operation among the regional countries to deal with the matter more effectively.
While chairing a special session of the summit, the minister said Pakistan has already brought down the annual population growth rate to 1.9 percent, and hoped to maintain it at a reasonable level.
Shahbaz Hussain said Pakistan was fulfilling all the international commitments to check population growth, adding: "We are also engaged in promoting sustainable development of the family through various programmes."
Earlier, during his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Zhang Weiqing, Shahbaz Hussain said Pakistan takes China as a role-model to arrest population growth, improving the living conditions of the people.
However, since Pakistan is an Islamic state, it cannot follow China adopting legislation to confine their families to only one-child. The two sides decided to develop co-operation improving family living conditions in their respective countries.
Hussain admired how the Chinese government improved socio-economic indicators and controlled population, saying Pakistan and other nations would like to learn from China's successful experiences.
They agreed upon various proposals for co-operation in population control and social welfare sector. He told APP the two sides would hold frequent exchanges of knowledge and expertise for population control.
They also agreed to co-operate addressing social problems like poverty, unequal health and educational opportunities, sexual discrimination and AIDS. It was also decided to arrange meetings between their Muslims scholars discussing ways to further improve the family control programme in the light of Islamic teachings.
He said the Chinese minister has accepted his invitation to visit Pakistan at an early convenient date to enhance bilateral co-operation in social sector.
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