June 20, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 19: The failure to restrict population growth rate is causing serious problems, making the job of the federal planners difficult to achieve 6 per cent GDP growth rate in future.

Sources said on Thursday that the government was unlikely to lower the population growth rate from 2.1 per cent to 1.9 per cent by 2004, over which the international donors agencies had also expressed concern.

Unofficially the population growth rate is estimated as 2.5 per cent annually with donors maintaining that Pakistan’s rapid population growth is eroding its economic development.

The government had been advised by the donor agencies to ensure population stabilizatio n, failing which the attainment of the goals and objectives of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) would become “difficult”.

Sources said that donors wanted real political commitment and administrative priority for the population programme. At the same time, they had called for associating religious organizations and the clergies, like that of Bangladesh, to effectively reduce the population growth rate.

An official in the population welfare ministry, when contacted, admitted that there was more lip service than making concerted effort to deal with the challenge of increasing population in the country.

According to the ministry, Pakistan would be the 7th most populous country in the world by the year 2035 — the second largest contributor to population growth after India and surpassing China.