Increase in budget of family planning dept stressed

LAHORE: Minister for Primary Health and Population Welfare Dr Jamal Nasir has said that the religious scholars were not against population planning and the Islamic Ideological Council of Pakistan has also declared this practice as permissible in Sharia.

The minister was speaking as a chief guest at the conference on 'Social Behaviour Change Communication', organised by the Punjab Population Welfare Department in collaboration with Green Star Social Marketing, here on Thursday.

Dr Jamal Nasir said that politicians blame others for their own inefficiency and inability. The population's atomic bomb has exploded as successive governments in the past failed to pay due attention to the two very vital sectors including population planning and environmental protection in the country during the last 75 years.

"We will recommend the new government to accord priority to the population planning and environmental protection sectors", the minister assured. Dr Jamal Nasir said that the most important factor for ensuring family planning was to change the attitude and behaviour of society as well as the individuals towards this issue.

Breaking stereotypes in this regard was an uphill task. He observed that the biggest hurdle in changing social behaviour towards a small family was the woman herself. A mother-in-law does not treat her daughter-in-law the way she treats her own daughter.

Likewise repeatedly questioning a newly married woman about childbirth leads to psychological problems for that woman, the minister added. He said that daughters were a blessing of Allah and their existence was an easy access to heaven.

He said that there was an urgent need to increase the budget of the family planning department and equip it with modern facilities for achieving desired objectives. Secretary Population Welfare Salman Ejaz, Director General Population Welfare Saman Rai, Additional Secretary Dr Naila Altaf, CEO Green Star Social Marketing Pakistan Syed Uzair Al-Rab, Chief of Party TCI Ghazanfar Abbas and others participated in the conference.