Steps stressed for easy access to family planning services

LAHORE: Punjab Population Welfare Department DG and Punjab Population Innovation Fund (PPIF) Chief Executive Officer Saman Rai has said steps should be taken for adopting a new idea of a balanced family because importance and usefulness of a small family is now well known.

She said this in a meeting with various delegations in her office here on Wednesday. She said Pakistan is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of population and Punjab is the densest province of the country.

She said that additional births have been recorded due to the gap in family planning needs, supply, and provision of related services. It has persisted for over a decade and closing this gap with traditional family planning methods is a challenging task. To provide better quality services along with increasing the coverage of family planning, the Punjab Population Innovation Fund has been established by the Punjab government, she said.

All these innovative initiatives are aimed at enabling easy access to family planning services, especially for people living in rural areas by adopting innovative communication. A four-point agenda has been introduced by the Punjab Population Innovation Fund to achieve the goals. This agenda includes ensuring increased access to family planning services, encouraging greater involvement of men, reducing the cost of family planning, and making family planning services and information available to everyone, focusing on the youth, she said. “It involves making use of modern mass media to ensure a balance in the population and resources of Punjab by bringing about a positive change in the attitudes and thinking of the people,” she added.

IGP listens to people's complaints

IGP Punjab met police employees and citizens at the Central Police Office and issued relief orders after listening to their complaints.

He directed the DIG Welfare to provide relief on the financial assistance requests of Constable Sajjad Hussain and Ghazi Constable Ghulam Murtaza and forwarded the application of Shahid Ashfaq, son of a police official for recruitment as a junior clerk on the family claim to AIG admin for necessary action.

He directed to provide relief after personal hearing of Ghazi Constable Osama Umair's request for service reinstatement. He directed DPO Gujrat to take immediate action and arrest the accused on the request of citizen Inayat Hussain. He forwarded the promotion request of six personnel of Lahore Police to CCPO Lahore and directed to take action according to merit on it , whereas Langri Adil Sarwar's request for financial support was sent to DIG Welfare for action.