The Contech Consortium organised the second consultative meeting, ‘Challenge Journalists Forum’ to discuss “The Role of Media to Make Governance Elite Socially Responsive” on Sunday at a local hotel in Islamabad.

The forum, under the aegis of a national advocacy campaign, “APNA Pakistan- Advocacy for Population & National Advancement,” discussed the ways to generate sustainable political will and commitment in order to adapt reproductive health as a national agenda, and to make it a part of political parties’ manifestos.

Aniq Zafar, CEO of Communications Research Strategies (CRS), which is a member of the Contech Consortium, while addressing the welcome session said that the core message of this forum was to make governance elite socially responsible to control the population surge, and for the media to ask the right questions and to demand action.

Aniq initiated a debate on population surge in Pakistan and asked for input on the various ways it could be controlled.

The meeting was attended by health experts, media representatives from the provincial capitals of the four provinces and by various journalists.

Dr Nauman Khan, a senior consultant on public health at Contec, informed the participants that the consortium had spoken to political parties, including the religio-political parties, such as Jamat-e-Islami and Jamat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, to sensitise them of the issue and urge them to make reproductive health a priority agenda in their manifestos.

Khalid Khan, a journalist, quoted the population minister of KPK, Saleem Khan as saying that the population rate of the province had reduced in the last few years.

He attributed this decrease to Ulema’s involvement in educating people about the benefits of a smaller family, and the presence of health centres in the rural areas.

Participants stressed on the need to take effective measures to control the population growth which was inversely proportional to the national resources.

Participants said that population growth was co-related to the increase in crime rates.

Participants recommended that increasing the spending in the education sector was an answer to many issues plaguing the country today.

The consultative session is a follow up of the first session held in Islamabad on December 15, 2012.

Consultative process for the project APNA Pakistan was launched in the first session and had provided the basis for a comprehensive political and media involvement guidelines.

The Consultative meeting was attended by senior media professionals from all over Pakistan, including Faisal Rehman Malik (PTV World, Islamabad), Shahzada Zulfiqar (Senior Correspondent AFP, Quetta), Beena Qayyum Khan (Anchor Samma, Karachi), Fauzia Shaheen (senior journalist, Karachi), Wajahat Masood (Jang, Lahore), Ameera Javeria (Lahore), Khalid Khan (The News, Peshawar), Said Alam Khan (The Nation, Peshawar), Shamim Shahid (senior journalist, Peshawar), Asghar Khan (Faisalabad) and Ms Deya Rehan (Radio Pakistan Islamabad), among others.