MULTAN: Speakers at an international online symposium on population underlined the need to realise the gravity of population influx and its control is the collective responsibility of the nation.
The speakers spoke during the international symposium on the World Population Day organised by the Women University Multan’s Department of Sociology here on Monday. The University of China academician Prof Ma Jianfu, Dr Waheed Iqbal Chaudhry, Dr Komal Niazi, Syed Muzaffar Hussain, Mohsin Rasool and Farhana Kanwal were the guest speakers in the symposium. The focal person of the symposium was Ast Prof Ayesha Khan. Speaking on the occasion, WUM Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Uzma Qureshi said that population was a great asset but at the same time if people do not utilise its potential properly, it could become a liability. She said that population control was the collective responsibility of people.
She said that the World Population Day 2020 focuses on multiple challenges of health, social and economic that people across the world were facing amid the Covid-19 pandemic. She added that a balanced population and resources were important for a durable development.
University of China academician Prof Dr Ma Jianfu highlighted the Pakistan’s demographic opportunities in her remarks that Pakistan had some of the greatest demographic opportunities for development in the world as a growing youth population enters adulthood. The demographic dividend could only be achieved with adequate investments in education and skills of youth harvesting the fruits of long term capital development, she said.
University of Malaysia academician Syed Muzaffar Hussain said that rapid population growth was a major challenge for many countries, including Pakistan and the situation was likely to get worse if urgent action was not taken. Prof Farzana Akram said that population was the biggest national security threat and it needs unprecedented attention. Prof Dr Asmat Naz stressed that having a small family went a long way of guaranteeing prosperity for the family unit and the nation. Dr Waheed Iqbal added that the increase in population was not good for economic resources of a country.
Prof Ayesha Khan said it was high time that programmes, seminars and campaigns were being organised to raise awareness in people about the ill-effects of increase in population. At the end, Prof Ayesha Khan thanked all the distinguished guests and speakers of the symposium.
‘MDA to launch mega residential scheme’: The Multan Development Authority is going to launch a mega residential scheme in the town after a long interval, officials said on Monday.
The officials said that eth MDA achieved more than 75pc increase in revenue generation and resources. More projects were also on the card, the MDA officials said. The Town Planning Directorate had earned 122pc more revenue than the budget target, they told. “The Town Planning Directorate had fixed Rs 150 million commercialisation fee collection target in the budget 2019-20. However, the directorate collected Rs 333.863 million bringing surge in revenue target to 122pc from the target”, officials said. It was unprecedented, which never ever happened in the history of the MDA, a senior official said.