Pakistan joins the global community in observing the World Population Day and reaffirms its commitment made at the International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD) at Cairo in 1994.
Although since then considerable progress has been made, but a lot still needs to be done to arrest rapid population growth, address the issue of poverty and to achieve the population stabilisation goal enunciated in the Population Policy 2002.
The population factor pays a crucial role in the development equation and requires a comprehensive approach in order to strike a balance between population increase and resources needed for sustainable development.
It is therefore, important to promote a shared perception in addressing the cause and effect relationship through appropriate policy initiatives and programmes that focus on individuals, households and communities.
There is also a need that initiatives in all social sectors like health, education, women development being undertaken coverge their synergies and work in tandem to achieve the common goal of improving the quality of life of the people.
The population welfare programme in Pakistan has been actively advocating voluntary adoption of small family norm and providing nation-wide services with the support of the private sector and civil society. However the programme needs the co-operation of all segments of the society to enhance the motivation for acceptance of small family values as a normal way of life.
I am happy to note that significant progress has been made in bringing down population growth to 1.96 percent. Even as maternal and infant mortality is on the decline we still have a long way to go in reaching our goals of providing complete reproductive health care for achieving population stabilisation.
Population welfare being a complex and multi-faceted task requires all embracing efforts to reach every household in the country. I take this opportunity to urge all public sector entities, private sector and other organisations as well as the society at large to promote and participate in this important national cause for the benefit and well-being of the people of our country.