OKARA-Provincial Minister for Population Welfare Col (r) Sardar Hashim Dogar said that education was an effective weapon to combat enormous increase in population.
He was addressing a symposium arranged by the District Population Welfare Department (DPWD) here the other day.
He said that healthy family and healthy children were the basis of a healthy nation, adding that the unchecked increase in population is a delicate situation for the country. “Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Chief Justice of Pakistan have been working on it with personal interest,” he said.
The minister said: “The officers and workers of the DPWD must carry the message within their sphere of jurisdiction that the mother and child must be quite healthy and every child must undergo process of education, for which the family planning is basis of human rights. Every married couple must plan and decide the future family strategy. The Punjab government was initiating a program for those poor mothers who go out for labour and cannot feed their children, to grant monthly stipend from Benazir Income Support Program.”
The minister said that none out of 3700 contract employees would be fired. They should continue serving in the department honestly, and work for the betterment the nation and the country. He disclosed that the Punjab government was planning to introduce a law prohibiting marriage of below 18 children. The ulema must play their role as front-liners by utilising the mosques and sermons for the betterment of the people and the country. The minister told the audience that the government had doubled the development fund in the district and the official of the department were being delegated with resources. The minister appreciated the lady workers of the department for their hard work and asked them to perform their duty honestly and with devotion. He said that the lady field workers of the dept had been crusading to bring an end to the increase in population. The symposium was also addressed by the former provincial minister Muhammad Ashraf Khan Sohna of PTI, district khateeb Qari Saeed Usmani, Qazi Muhammad Aslam Okaravi, Assistant Director General DQWD Rai Sameeukllah, and District Officer DPWD Naila Mehboob. The minister also visited the awareness stalls of the dept.