The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that there were a total of 6.38 million live births in 2016 in the country and out of which, 419,032 infants (less than one year of age) died. Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar informed the House through written response of a question during the Question Hour that the number of infant deaths included 290,393 deaths of neonates (less than one month of age).
She also informed the House the numbers are estimated on projections of earlier surveys (Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2012-13). The major reasons of deaths for neonates (less than one month of age) include pre-maturity, 40 percent; birth asphyxia, 21 percent; and infections, 18 percent. The major reasons of deaths for infants (less than one year of age) include pneumonia, 17.7 percent; diarrhoeal diseases, 11.3 percent, and neonatal causes, 60 percent.
To another question, Minister for Water Resources Javed Ali Shah informed the House that water policy will be launched on March 22 and it is for the first time in the country's history that a water policy has been formulated covering all aspects including water conservation and storage. He said a steering committee will oversee the implementation of water policy.
The minister also informed the House that the groundbreaking of Munda Dam will be performed in Mohmand Agency next month, which will help generate 800MW of electricity, besides irrigating 16,700 acres of land. He said funds are available for this project and efforts will be made to complete it at the earliest.
Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf informed the House that transparency is being ensured in Hajj balloting. He clarified that there is no Hajj quota for the prime minister, the ministers or the parliamentarians.
He said that this year 375,000 people applied to perform Hajj under the government scheme. He said that given the arrangements put in place by the Ministry of Religious Affairs at the holy land and its economy package, majority of people desire to perform Hajj under the government scheme.
"We have decided that 67 percent people will perform Hajj under government scheme while 33 percent under private Hajj operators," he said. He, however, said the private Hajj operators have moved the court against this decision. He assured that court's decision on the matter will be implemented. To another question, Minister of State for Maritime Affairs Jaffar Iqbal informed the House that Gwadar Port is in the development phase and will become a profitable entity in the next two to three years. He said that modern machinery has been placed at the port to load and offload the goods from containers.
Responding to a calling attention notice, Minister for Water Resources Javed Ali Shah said that water is being distributed among the provinces in accordance with Water Accord of 1991. He said the share of Sindh province was 19,000 cusecs but it was given over 19,100 cusecs. He categorically made it clear that the government has no desire to shift the water share of one province to the other.
Members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, who were mover of the calling attention notice, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the minister's response and complained that Sindh is not getting due share of its water.
They also said the federal government was violating the Water Accord 1991 by not providing due share of water to the Sindh province. The minister, however, rebutted this impression, saying the country is facing acute shortage of water, but even then best efforts are being made to distribute the available water among the provinces as per the Water Accord.