Pakistan to Spend $300 Million on Birth Control
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan, faced with the world’s fastest growing population, is to spend $300 million over the next five years to try to slow the birth rate, a government official said Friday.
The population of 120 million is increasing at a rate of 3% a year and could double in the next 20 years, Mushtaq Malik, population welfare secretary for central Punjab province, said.
“Realizing the serious threat of alarming population growth rate in the country, the federal government has allocated an amount of ($300 million) to create awareness among the people about this population explosion,” Malik said.
The figure is three times the sum allocated to population control in the current five-year plan, he said.
The government plans to bring down the growth rate to 2.5% by 1998 “otherwise it will devour the fruits of development,” he said.
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