A representative of DFID Ben French calls on Begum Zakia Shahnawaz

Lahore: Provincial Minister for Population Welfare, Begum Zakia Shahnawaz has said that a coordinated programme has been launched for the people at district and tehsil level in the light of direction of Punjab government for controlling population. She said that awareness will be created among the people about family planning. She said that with the cooperation of Punjab Information Technology Board, Population Welfare Department has computerized all the data reports of tehsil population welfare officers and welfare centers of all the districts which will make reporting and monitoring easy.

She expressed these views during meeting with Ben French, representative of Department for International Development (DFID) at Civil Secretariat, here today. She said that under this system Tehsil Population Welfare Officers upload monitoring reports and the performance of welfare centers. She said that in the next phase, data of all family health clinics will be updated.

The Minister apprised the head of DFID in Lahore about the activities being carried out for checking population through trained team and checking by international level experts and the performance of Population Welfare Department. The Minister also extended invitation to the monitoring team for bringing more acceleration in activities of Population Welfare Department. She said that decision has been made to recruit Ulema councilors for creating awareness among the people. She said that 600 Ulema councilors will be recruited for furthering population welfare programme. She said that these Ulema will work as social mobilizers and will provide awareness to the people regarding services of Population Welfare Department.