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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Heartfile population growth documentary inspires action

Islamabad The Ministry of National Health Services Tuesday announced its intention to set up an institutional arrangement for the implementation of recommendations contained in ‘The Population Emergency,’ a documentary which features Pakistan’s five decade-long commitment to Universal Health Coverage for Family Planning and prospects for change after the 18th Constitutional

By our correspondents
February 18, 2015
Islamabad
The Ministry of National Health Services Tuesday announced its intention to set up an institutional arrangement for the implementation of recommendations contained in ‘The Population Emergency,’ a documentary which features Pakistan’s five decade-long commitment to Universal Health Coverage for Family Planning and prospects for change after the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
Speaking at the pre-launch screening of the documentary, which has been made by the NGO think tank Heartfile, state minister of health Saira Afzal welcomed the initiative. “We have been looking forward to its release, and will formulate a three-member committee to take its recommendations forward,” she stated, while reiterating how major an issue population growth is for Pakistan.
The soft screening of the documentary was attended by expert demographers, public health specialists, donors and government officials including secretary and director general of health, Sheikh Aftab Ahmad and Dr. Assad Hafeez, respectively.
Aftab Ahmed termed the documentary’s recommendations “a masterpiece.” He added, “They are also timely, and can be used one by one to reach goals, both at the federal and provincial levels. We will set up an institutional arrangement to implement these recommendations.”
The 45-minute documentary is a health and population policy and systems presentation spread over 13 parts. It reflects on each component of the service delivery chain: human resource, information systems, supply chain, governance, and financing. In particular, it fleshes out in great detail, the post-devolution role played by the provinces and the shortcomings in this respect, despite resource allocations.
The most salient part of the documentary is the manner in which it outlines the role of the federal government post-devolution, in particular the responsibilities related to supply chain management, information systems and normative agencies.
The documentary highlights alarming statistics: 3 million people or a whole new city is added to the population every year. It reminds us that from 34 million in 1950 to 190 million today, our population is expected to rise to 300 million by 2050. The documentary labels this trend as unsustainable and calls for this issue to be raised as a national priority.
The documentary is based on the analysis done by Dr. Sania Nishtar, founder of Heartfile. Speaking to this scribe after the soft screening, Dr. Sania stated, “Today, Pakistan’s exploding population is the real crisis that threatens the prosperity of our generations. In the face of resource scarcity, constrained economic opportunities and joblessness, population growth is simply pushing youth further into the hands of terrorists, gangs and mafias. It is fuelling a fire that is raving our country. The country is literally bursting at the seams. We must stabilize our population. This is not just an imperative for women’s health, wellbeing and poverty reduction; it is also necessary for national progress and development, and for the security of our nation.”
Heartfile’s project manager Dr. Saba Amjad said, the documentary will officially be made public within the next few weeks.