[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 144 (Thursday, October 6, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 6, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             THE DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

                                 ______


                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 1994

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, at last month's population conference in 
Cairo, delegates from nearly 180 countries wrestled with some of the 
most pressing questions of our day.
  One of the highlights of the proceedings at Cairo was the address 
delivered by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan during the 
conference's opening session. Her speech addresses the important 
linkage between development, women's empowerment, family values, and 
limiting population growth.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe my colleague will find her speech insightful, 
and I ask that Prime Minister Bhutto's address be reprinted in the 
Record.

    Address by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, 
                      Bismillah Arrahama Nirraheem

       Mr. President, Secretary General, Distinguished Delegates, 
     Ladies and Gentlemen: I come before you as a Woman; as a 
     Mother; and as a Wife.
       I come before you as the democratically elected Prime 
     Minister of a great Muslim nation--the Islamic Republic of 
     Pakistan.
       I come before you as the leader of the ninth largest 
     population on earth. Ladies and Gentlemen.
       We stand at the cross roads of history.
       The choices that we make today will affect the future of 
     mankind.
       Out of the debris of the second world war arose the impulse 
     to reconstruct the world.
       Large communities of people exercised their right of self-
     determination by establishing nation-states of their own.
       The challenge of economic development led, in several 
     instances, to group-formation where states subordinated their 
     individual destiny to collective initiatives.
       It seemed for a while that these collective efforts would 
     determine the political architecture of the future.
       The events of the last few years have, however, made us 
     aware of the growing complexity and contradictions of the 
     human situation.
       The end of the Cold War, should have freed immense 
     resources for development.
       Unfortunately, it led to the re-emergence of sub-regional 
     tensions and conflicts. In extreme cases, there was a break 
     up of nation-states.
       Sadly, instead of coming nearer, the objective of a 
     concerted global action to address common problems of 
     mankind, seems lost in the twilight.
       The problem of population stabilization faced by us today 
     cannot be divorced from our yesterdays.
       Ironically enough, population has risen fastest in areas 
     which were weakened most by the unfortunate experience of 
     colonial domination.
       The third world communities have scarce resources spread 
     thinly over a vast stretch of pressing human needs.
       We are unable to tackle questions of population growth on a 
     scale commensurate with the demographic challenge.
       Since demographic pressure, together with migration from 
     disadvantaged areas to affluent states, are urgent problems, 
     transcending national frontiers, it is imperative that in the 
     field of population control, global strategies and national 
     plans work in unison.
       Perhaps that is a dream. But we all have a right to dream.
       Ladies and gentlemen, I dream of a Pakistan, of an Asia, of 
     a world where every pregnancy is planned, and every child 
     conceived is nurtured, loved, educated and supported.
       I dream of a Pakistan, of an Asia, of a world not 
     undermined by ethnic divisions brought upon by population 
     growth, starvation, crime and anarchy.
       I dream of a Pakistan, of an Asia, of a world, where we can 
     commit our social resources to the development of human life 
     and not its destruction.
       That dream is far from the reality we endure.
       We are a planet in crisis, a planet out of control, a 
     planet moving towards catastrophe. The question before us at 
     this conference is whether we have the will, the energy, the 
     strength to do something about it.
       I say we do. We must.
       What we need is a global partnership for improving the 
     human condition.
       We must concentrate on that which unites us. We should not 
     examine issues that divide us.
       Our document should seek to promote the objective of 
     planned parenthood of population, of population control.
       This conference must not be viewed by the teaming masses of 
     the world as a universal social charter seeking to impose 
     adultery, abortion, sex education and other such matters on 
     individuals, societies and religions which have their own 
     social ethos.
       By convening this conference, the international community 
     is reaffirming its resolve that problems of a global nature 
     will be solved through global efforts.
       Governments can do a great deal to improve the quality of 
     life in our society.
       But there is much that governments cannot do.
       Governments do not educate our children. Parents educate 
     children. More often mothers educate children.
       Governments do not teach values to our children. Parents 
     teach values to our children. More often mothers teach values 
     to children.
       Governments do not socialize youngsters into responsible 
     citizens. Parents are the primary socializing agents in 
     society. In most societies, that job belongs to the mother.
       How do we tackle population growth in a country like 
     Pakistan? We tackle it by tackling infant mortality. By 
     providing villages with electrification. By raising an army 
     of women, 33,000 strong, to educate our mothers, sisters and 
     daughters in child welfare and population control.
       By setting up a bank run by women for women, to help women 
     achieve economic independence. And, with economic 
     independence, have the wherewithal to make independent 
     choices.
       I am what I am today because of a beloved father who left 
     me independent means, to make independent decisions, free of 
     male prejudice in my society, or even in my family.
       As chief executive of one of the nine largest populated 
     countries in the world, I and the Government are faced with 
     the awesome task of providing for homes, schools, hospitals, 
     sewerage, drainage, food, gas, electricity, employment and 
     infrastructure.
       In Pakistan, in a period of 30 years--from 1951 to 1981--
     our population rose by 50 million.
       At present it is 126 million.
       By the year 2020, our population may be 213 million.
       In 1960 one acre of land sustained one person. Today one 
     acre of land sustains 2\1/2\ people.
       Pakistan cannot progress, if it cannot check its rapid 
     population growth.
       Check if we must, for it is not the destiny of the people 
     of Pakistan to live in squalor and poverty condemned to a 
     future of hunger and horror.
       That is why, with the 33,000 lady health workers and the 
     women's bank, the government has appointed 12,000 community 
     motivaters across the country.
       To educate and motivate our people to a higher standard of 
     living through planned families, spaced families, families 
     that can be nurtured.
       In our first budget, we demonstrated our commitment to 
     human resource development.
       We increased social sector spending by 33%.
       And by the year 2000, we intend to take Pakistan's 
     educational expenditure from 2.19% where we found it to 3% of 
     our GNP.
       This is no easy task for a country with a difficult IMF 
     structural program.
       With a ban on economic and military assistance from the 
     only super power in the world.
       With 2.4 million Afghan refugees forgotten by the world.
       With more Kashmiri refugees coming in needing protection.
       But we are determined to do it. For we have a commitment to 
     our people.
       A commitment based on principles.
       Such a commitment demands that we take decisions which are 
     right, which are not always popular.
       Leaders are elected to lead nations.
       Leaders are not elected to let a vocal narrow-mined 
     minority dictate an agenda of backwardness.
       We are committed to an agenda for change.
       An agenda to take our mothers and our infants into the 21th 
     century with the hope of a better future.
       A future free from diseases that rack and ruin.
       A future free from polio, from goiter, from blindness 
     caused by deficiency in vitamin A.
       These are the battles that we must fight, not only as a 
     nation but as a global community.
       These are the battles on which history--and our people--
     will judge us. These are the battles to which the mosque and 
     the church must contribute, along with governments and NGO's 
     and families.
       Empowerment of women is one part of this battle.
       Today women pilots fly planes in Pakistan, women serve as 
     judges in the superior judiciary, women work in police 
     stations, women work in our civil service, our foreign 
     service and our media.
       Our working women uphold the Islamic principles that all 
     individuals are equal in the eyes of God.
       By empowering our women, we work for our goal of population 
     stabilization and, with it, promotion of human dignity.
       But the march of mankind to higher heights is a universal 
     and collective concern.
       Regrettably, the conference's document contains serious 
     flaws in striking at the heart of a great many cultural 
     values, in the north and in the south, in the mosque and in 
     the church.
       In Pakistan our response will doubtless be shaped by our 
     belief in the eternal teachings of Islam.
       Islam is a dynamic religion committed to human progress. It 
     makes no unfair demands of its followers.
       The Holy Quran says:
       ``Allah wishes you ease, and wishes not hardship for you.''
       Again the Holy Book says:
       ``He has chosen you, and has not laid on you any hardship 
     in religion.''
       The followers of Islam have no conceptual difficulty in 
     addressing questions of regulating population in light of 
     available resources.
       The only constraint is that the process must be consistent 
     with abiding moral principles.
       Islam lays a great deal of stress on the sanctity of life.
       The Holy Book tells us:
       ``Kill not your children on a plea of want.
       We provide sustenance for them and for you.''
       Islam, therefore, except in exceptional circumstances 
     rejects abortion as a method of population control.
       There is little compromise on Islam's emphasis on the 
     family unit.
       The traditional family is the basic unity on which any 
     society rests.
       It is the anchor on which the individual relies as he 
     embarks upon the Journey of Life.
       Islam aims at harmonious lives built upon a bedrock of 
     conjugal fidelity and parental responsibility.
       Many suspect that the disintegration of the traditional 
     family has contributed to moral decay.
       Let me state, categorically, Mr. Chairman, that the 
     traditional family is the union sanctified by marriage.
       Muslims, with their overriding commitment to knowledge, 
     would have no difficulty with dissemination of information 
     about reproductive health, so long as its modalities remain 
     compatible with their religious and spiritual heritage.
       Lack of an adequate infrastructure of services and not 
     ideology, constitutes our basic problems.
       The major objective of the population policy of the newly 
     elected democratic government is a commitment to improve the 
     quality of life of the people through provision of family 
     planning and health services.
       Mr. Chairman, we refuse to be daunted by the immensity of 
     the task.
       But the goals set by this conference would become realistic 
     only with the whole-hearted cooperation amongst the nations 
     of the world.
       Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda and Kashmir are but a few examples 
     of nation-states under siege.
       The rise of so-called fundamentalism in some of our 
     societies, and the emergence of neo-fascism, in some western 
     communities, are symptoms of a deeper malaise.
       I believe the nation-states might just have failed to meet 
     their people's expectations within their own limited national 
     resources of ideological framework.
       If so, the malady is probably none other than a retreat 
     from the ideals of the founding fathers of the United 
     Nations.
       We can, perhaps, still restore mankind to vibrant health by 
     returning to those ideals of Global Cooperation.
       Given the background, I hope that the delegates 
     participating in this conference will act in wisdom, and with 
     vision to promote population stabilization.
       Pakistan's delegation will work constructively for the 
     finalization of a document enjoying the widest consensus.
       Ladies and Gentleman, our destiny does not lie in our 
     stars. It lies within us. Our destiny beckons us. Let us have 
     the strength to grasp it.
       Thank you President Mubarak, for hosting this Conference on 
     such an important global concern. And thank you Mr. Secretary 
     General and Dr. Nafis Sadik for making it possible.
       Thank you.

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