Federal Minister for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain has said that an advocacy seminar on population will highlight the population welfare programme.
The seminar for the parliamentarians and district Nazims will be held in Islamabad on December 26.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, he said the ministry conducted population summit in September this year, which was attended by scholars, intellectuals, and representatives of donor agencies sharing their ideas and knowledge on population welfare programme.
This platform also strengthened the commitment to bring down higher growth rate in the country, he added. "Positive response from all participants encouraged us to conduct advocacy seminar in this month", he said.
The minister said current population of the country is around 152.2 million, which would be doubled by 2050, if population continued to grow with the existing alarming rate. "We are committed to reduce it to 1.3 percent by 2020 by involving NGOs and expanding the network of family planning centres," he added. He also highlighted the role of Ulema for checking the higher population growth rate. Iran and Bangladesh have controlled high birth rate due to participation and co-operation of Ulema the same is expected from them in Pakistan, he said.