The provincial health minister had announced giving mobile phones to the women having fewer children.
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News – 4th July, 2018) Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had on Tuesday expressed concern over the rapidly growing population of the country and questioned that if the country could afford seven children per family.
According to media reports, the provincial health minister had announced giving mobile phones to the women having fewer children.
To this, the CJP had said that there should be some facility for men too. He said that this will benefit the mobile phone companies but nobody will do such a big job on a mobile phone worth Rs 3000 and solar panel of Rs 2000.
The CJP then asked Fawad Hassan Fawad to provide guidelines to resolve the issue of ever growing population.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan conducted hearing on a suo motu case pertaining to the growing population in the country.
The Chief Justice remarked that the country does not have enough resources to sustain the increasing population and linked it with the 'population bomb'. He asked if Pakistan is able to afford seven children per family as there is not enough water and food available in accordance with the population demand.
The Chief Justice questioned the Secretary Health that how much budget the Punjab government had allocated for health centres in the province.
The Deputy Secretary Health informed the bench that the department was receiving around Rs1.5 billion annually, in addition to the Rs3.6 billion provided by the Public Sector Development Programme. He informed the court that the government didn't have any monitoring system in place to regulate health centres or document the growth in the country's population. The Chief Justice observed that the population needed to be controlled on a war footing and the country needed a unified policy to tackle the population challenge.
He remarked that he would himself visit the health centres to inspect the facilities available.
