Islamabad: Council of Islamic Ideology Chairman Allama Raghib Naeemi said on Thursday that nearly six million children are born in Pakistan every year but only around 2,000 medically require formula feeding, warning that abandoning breastfeeding despite clear Quranic injunctions and overwhelming health benefits is a sin.
“Avoiding breastfeeding without medical grounds amounts to a sin and has become a major public health crisis that fuels diarrhoea, pneumonia, malnutrition and high newborn mortality,” he said while delivering the keynote address at a national consultation organised by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in collaboration with Unicef at a local hotel.
Declaring breastmilk substitutes a curse, he said every child is born with complete nourishment provided by nature and protected by divine command, while families continue to spend more than 110 billion rupees annually on formula milk even though breastmilk remains unmatched in strength, nutrition, immunity and support for mental development.
He urged mosques to establish breastfeeding and worship friendly spaces for mothers and called for secure breastfeeding areas for working women across the country.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousuf later announced a national movement to promote breastfeeding and curb preventable newborn deaths linked to formula feeding. Speaking at the consultation titled Advocating, Promoting and Supporting Breastfeeding Guided by Quranic Injunctions and Sayings of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, he said breastfeeding is not only a health matter but a religious obligation. He urged ulema nationwide to dedicate at least five minutes of their Friday sermons to explaining its religious and social importance.
He said infants in Pakistan continue to die from diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition because families abandon breastfeeding without medical reason, adding that this behaviour contradicts clear divine instruction. He said the ministry, with support from UNICEF, will mobilise scholars and community leaders to counter the rising commercial promotion of formula milk and revive breastfeeding as a moral, religious and public health priority.
The event was attended by leading scholars including Allama Raghib Naeemi, Allama Tahir Ashrafi, Muhammad Bux Sani and Dr Shahid, along with ulema from various schools of thought. Representatives of Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism also participated. UNICEF Deputy Representative Sharmeela Rasool, UNICEF Nutrition Chief Anteneh Girma Minas and several health experts were present.
A joint declaration presented by UNICEF’s Fahmida Khan was unanimously endorsed by ulema, calling for religious mobilisation, community education, stricter regulation of formula milk marketing and creation of supportive spaces for breastfeeding mothers.
In her address, Sharmeela Rasool said breastfeeding is central to Pakistan’s nutrition and health challenges, where about 40 percent of children remain stunted. She said Pakistan loses hundreds of newborns every day to preventable causes and that breastfeeding can reduce mortality, save nearly 900 million dollars currently spent on formula milk and conserve the large quantity of water used in its preparation.
She said breastfeeding is also a climate and development issue and called for empowering women, engaging communities and using mosques and other worship spaces to promote it.
Allama Tahir Ashrafi said breastfeeding for two years is also a natural form of birth spacing that protects maternal and child health. He demanded action against clinics and aesthetic centres that discourage breastfeeding and influence women to avoid it, saying such facilities should be penalised or sealed. He called for joint conferences of ulema and healthcare professionals to dispel myths and encourage early and exclusive breastfeeding.
Health experts including Dr Saba Shuja and Dr Muhammad Salman highlighted national breastfeeding indicators and stressed the need for early initiation within the first hour of birth. Dr Maqbool Hussain of the Pakistan Pediatric Association discussed the broad health benefits of breastfeeding and warned that formula feeding increases the risk of infections and long-term health complications.
A panel discussion brought together Maulana Haroon Rasheed, Allama Arif Hussain, Pir Mumtaz Ahmed Nizami, Maulana Samiullah Agha, Dr Ali Tariq and representatives of minority faiths, all of whom supported a unified national effort to restore breastfeeding as a shared religious, cultural and public health responsibility.
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