Govt taking measures to check price hike: minister

LAHORE : Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan on Saturday said that prosperity of the country and its people was the foremost priority of the PTI government.

Addressing a seminar on "Health and Nutrition: a Challenge for Future of Pakistan," organised by Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) at Expo Centre, the minister said the Almighty Allah has blessed the country a lot, but unfortunately, in past the country faced lack of leadership.

In the past, he said, the country's leadership gave priority to their personal interests instead of focusing on the welfare of people.

He said the present government was taking all possible measures to control price hike, adding that price hike matter would be discussed with the adviser on finance as well.

The minister said that problems like stunting growth, poverty and malnutrition needed to be focused, besides making collective efforts to handle such challenges.

Mehboob Sultan said the prosperity of a poor person was imperative for the development of the country.

He said that poultry sector had contributed to boosting the national economy by meeting the nutritional needs of people as well as providing jobs to a large number of people.

He said, "I hope that poultry industry will benefit from the research carried out by our scientists to deal with the poultry industry challenges.” The food ministry and its allied departments are always there to facilitate the poultry industry, he maintained.

He said the incumbent government, according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and with the cooperation of provincial governments, had launched a poultry project.

He said the government was providing six-bird units and 12-bird units on subsidy to the people. He said poultry sector had faced the challenges of chicken disease in 1990, 1991 and in other years, adding that steps like vaccination of chicken, besides bio-security and other precautions were taken to overcome the disease challenge.

He said that veterinary researchers also played an important role in handling chicken disease-related problems.

He said the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council was monitoring the spread of avian influenza in the country to check it, adding the cooperation of Provincial Livestock Department was commendable in this regard.

Earlier, talking to the media, Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan said the backyard poultry scheme had been launched to overcome the problem of poverty. He said the objective of the scheme was to provide an opportunity to the people to earn their livelihood.

He said the government was making sincere efforts to uplift the agriculture sector which would yield positive results.

The minister also congratulated the Pakistan Poultry Association on holding International Poultry Expo 2019. Punjab Livestock Minister Sardar Husnain Bahadar Dreshak, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences VC Dr Talat Naseer Pasha and others also spoke on the occasion.