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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Pakistan_______________
Government caves to UN pressure
Promises aggressive population program
At an April 24 meeting between Pakistani government representatives and the United Nations Population Fund, it was decided that the “country’s population growth rate would be further brought down to 1.9 percent by the year 2003 from the existing 2.2 percent.” In an immediate response to the Pakistani government’s agreement on that policy, the UNFPA promised another $18 million to achieve the population goal—after having already pumped in millions to suppress population growth.
Methods used by the program to counter births under the new policy include “creating awareness among the masses about the implications of high population” and “providing them quality reproductive health service, enhancing the status of women, striving for gender equity and equality, and achieving sustainable development,” according to coverage of the meeting supplied by the Associated Press of Pakistan. The AP story also noted that foreign donors “appreciated the program and ensured their continued support to help achieve the 1.9 percent target.”
Last August, the government of Pakistan had rejected a UNFPA proposal to include lessons on the “benefits of small families” as part of the national education syllabus, but UNFPA threatened that the decision could cost the government $250 million in foreign aid. Following the threat, the Pakistan government promised to hold population control as a “national priority” as it thanked the UNFPA for a $35 milli