ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan’s population has surpassed 240 million, the interplay between overpopulation and gender equality has created a cyclical challenge where overpopulation strains limited resources and exacerbating gender disparities.

Scarce resources lead to unequal access to education and healthcare, perpetuating societal norms that discourage women’s empowerment. Simultaneously, gender inequality contributes to overpopulation, as limited educational and economic opportunities for women hinder their ability to make informed family planning choices.

These remarks were made by an official of the health ministry’s population programme wing while talking to Dawn.

“If we continued with lethargic attitude towards the population bulge, we may be left with no option but to suffer. There is a need to impose population emergency in the country and take steps to discourage population growth. The first step should be to de-link the disbursement of National Finance Commission (NFC) award from the population. Currently, provinces are making efforts to increase their population to get maximum share from the NFC,” he said while requesting anonymity.

This week, Federal Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan, while speaking at a seminar, also shared similar views.

The minister stressed the need for investing in strengthening data systems to gauge the programmatic progress.

“We are dedicated to improving access to family planning services through the implementation of high-impact practices and achieving short-term outcomes,” he said.

He added that political commitment, policy consistency and the reinforcement of the community midwives (CMWs) programmes were essential for achieving sustainable population growth. He committed to utilise the untapped potential of private sector and CMWs for improving family planning services in the country.

The official of the health ministry said Pakistan’s GDP was of over $300 billion compared to New Zealand which had a GDP of less than $200 billion.

“However, in Pakistan, people want to go to New Zealand and work there because the population of that country is around five million due to which per-capita income is around $25,000 compared to over $1,500 in Pakistan,” he said.

He said that overpopulation resulted into poverty and then into domestic abuse, crime, disparity in masses and a number of other issues.

“There are 25 million children out of school of which half are girls. By increasing the economic opportunities we can address the issue of out of school children. However, we have to control the population and for that a policy has to be formulated to tackle the religious circles who are against population control. Once East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had more population compared to West Pakistan but currently Bangladesh’s population is over 160 million due to which economic situation of the country is much better than Pakistan,” he said.

He suggested that female population should be made part of the labour force because currently around 25pc of the female population is part of the labour force. He said the doubling of population in less than 30 years has been putting pressure on health and other sectors.

“Despite efforts, only 30pc of married women in Pakistan use contraception methods. There is a need to empower women in making informed choices,” he said.

At a seminar held this week, Country Director of the Population Council Dr Zeba Sathar highlighted the effectiveness of increased investment in family planning programmes, voucher schemes and private sector’s engagement as proven global strategies for accelerating progress in family planning.

She urged federal and provincial governments to integrate these high-impact practices into their development agenda to improve maternal and child health indicators while achieving sustainable population growth.

Former Senator Farhatullah Babar stressed that the weightage given to population in the NFC award incentivises population growth and recommended empowering local governments, women-centric decision-making and the utilisation of lady health workers (LHWs) to enhance access to family planning services.

Former senior economist at the World Bank Dr Hanid Mukhtar pointed out that Pakistan’s public expenditure on population services had a low and declining budgetary priority.

He said despite a moderate increase in funding over the last four years, a substantial portion of the budget was allocated to wages and salaries rather than the procurement of contraceptives, facilities and trained staff.

Dr Waqar Masood Khan, adviser to the prime minister on finance, emphasised that development prospects remained elusive until education, healthcare, including family planning and female workforce participation were addressed simultaneously.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2023