Population increasing by 1.4 percent per annum

The government is planning to bring population growth rate under control from present 1.4 percent to 1.0 percent during next year, said Professor A. J. Khan, Federal Minister for Population Welfare here on Tuesday.
"Population boom is a big challenge and if it was not controlled, the country would face scarcity of food and other resources, as 1.4 percent annual growth in population is a threat to country's economy", the minister said while addressing the concluding session of a six-day workshop on "Introduction of Reproductive Health, Curriculum-Training of Trainers on Integrated Teaching", held at Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC).
The workshop was organised by RMC in league with Population Council, USAID, UNFPA and Falah, a local NGO. A large number of health professionals and faculty of different medical colleges attended the workshop.
"At present Pakistan's population is over 165 million, which is increasing by 1.4 percent per annum and if government succeeded in reducing the population growth, country would not face scarcity of natural resources and people would enjoy all basic facilities" said Professor Khan.
He said that the main target of the government is to bring down the population growth rate as it came down from 3.4 to 2.8 percent in the past. Then it further descended to current rate only due to efforts made by the government, he said.
He hailed introduction of new education system in medical colleges saying that some medical colleges like RMC have taken initiatives to start integrated medical education and semester system which would bring positive change in the healthcare sector in near future. It is very encouraging that RMC was going to start BSc programme in Allied Health Sciences, he added.
He suggested the RMC management to start MPhil and PhD level courses in the college. "I would suggest that education of MPhil and PhD may be imparted here as this is considered to be one of the best educational institutes", he said.
Medical education and professionals of Pakistan have received good appreciation world over, because it has best educational institutions with experienced faculty, the minister said.
The RMC Principal Professor Dr Mussadiq Khan, Country Director Population Council Dr Zeba Sattar and Dr Abida Sultana also addressed the session and highlighted the objectives of the workshop. Later, the minister distributed certificates among participants of the workshop.