ISLAMABAD, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said concerted efforts have brought down Pakistan's population growth rate from 3.6 percent to 1.9 percent within a period of 32 years.

    While addressing the inaugural ceremony Monday of Internal Ulema Conference on population and development, the Prime Minister said: "To achieve our goal of population stabilization, we must strive to seek inputs from all the stakeholders and learn from the experience of other Muslim countries, which have succeeded in steadying their populations."

    The Ulema Conference on population and development was held in May 2005 that was attended by representatives from 21 Muslim countries. The "Islamabad Declaration on Population and Development" was issued at the end of the meeting. The Declaration's recommendations were transformed into Program of Proposed Action (POA) that is being circulated to participating countries for having their inputs on the proposed POA.

    He called for timely and decisive actions on Islamabad Declaration's recommendations.

    He said Pakistan, which has the sixth largest population in the world, would become the fourth largest country by the year 2050.

    He suggested making Pakistanis aware about the comforts of small family.

    The private sector organizations, NGOs, intelligentsia, civil society and international agencies had to carry the message of family planning to every nook and corner of the country, he said.

    Minister for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain said: "The awareness and training program for local Ulema has been strengthened to sensitize them on population issues for seeking their support and we will soon achieve the target of training 13,000 Ulema all over Pakistan."

    Another important development was the involvement of female Ulema in the program activities who should serve as a catalyst for behavioral change and community mobilization at the grassroots level, he said.

    Shahbaz said the world population has crossed the figure of 6 billion but even today in spite of all the scientific advancements, one in every five persons was a victim of hunger.

    He said that 800 million people suffered from chronic malnutrition and 88 countries were facing a catastrophe in the shape of famines, 200 million children under five-year-old were suffering from food deficiencies.

    Immediate solutions for this catastrophic situation were impossible, he added.

    "The government introduced a population policy in 2002 to address population issue. Pakistan with a population of 156.26 million and the population growth rate that was over 3 percent in 80s has declined to 1.86 percent. Total fertility rate has come down to 4.0 and Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has gone upwards to 37 percent in 2006," he said.

    He said the population issue could not be addressed alone. Civil society, religious leaders and scholars were urged to join hands in delivering the message about small family. Enditem