THE escalating effects of rapid and unchecked population growth have finally received serious attention. This is evident in the inclusion of ‘population management’ in the National Security Policy, which prioritises human security as essential for national security. Recently, the then chief justice-designate put population concerns as a priority on his list of unaddressed national issues. Is there reason to be optimistic that Pakistan will finally do justice to its population challenges?

The major path for tackling high fertility and rapid population growth is through the provision of voluntary access to quality family planning services in the public health system. Pakistan is perhaps one of the last countries that is still not offering family planning services widely through its healthcare system.

Alongside the expansion of family planning services, there is also a need for a strong public education campaign. While a population narrative has been developed, Pemra can play a positive role by ensuring free public health time to raise awareness of the issue. A vibrant and creative media has to play its role to draw attention to population concerns and how they affect the daily health, lives and livelihoods of millions of ordinary citizens. To signal its importance, family planning services should be included in the Sehat Sahulat card, and in the Ehsaas programme.

Recently, resources were found for messaging that prevented a major outbreak of Covid-19 in Pakistan. And we are in the last stages of being a polio-endemic country thanks to carefully designed public messaging and the crucial support of the media. Family planning which prevents avoidable deaths of mothers and children too deserves the same level of resources and messaging as it has a direct bearing on public goods and well-being.

The topic of population has been absent from our national discourse. Are things changing now?

Both the federal and provincial governments have a role to play. The responsibility of the provinces is the delivery of family planning services. The federal government too has a responsibility. It can attain a position of authority by upholding a national priority and by providing financing for incentivising the provinces to implement stronger programmes. The management of Covid-19 is a good example. While the provinces have independently implemented vaccinations, treatments, etc the federally chaired NCOC provided a platform for additional financing and policy guidance with the full cooperation of the provinces.

The topic of population has been absent from our national discourse, even though its impact on economic growth, poverty, rising unemployment and food shortages is massive. The strong linkages between the economy and the need to lower fertility must be at the forefront of the repositioning of responsibilities. The Ministry of Finance must realise that family planning is perhaps one of the most effective investments to make in order to improve many of our social development indicators. It must release the annual Rs10 billion fund mandated by the 2018 Council of Common Interests (CCI) decision. It was meant for enhancing family planning services. The rationale was to reward and incentivise additional efforts instead of rebuking such attempts through the disincentives for the provinces built into the NFC award.

Fortunately, two integral pillars of society which have been held responsible for blocking population issues in the past have been persuaded to provide positive support. There has been resounding support and endorsement from the Council of Islamic Ideology and the minister of religious affairs. They have fully endorsed the new population narrative and birth spacing as a fundamental human right to save the lives of mothers and children.

Extremely important and something we have been working hard to inculcate is cross-party support for the population narrative and the 2018 CCI decisions. Under the aegis of the Parliamentary Forum on Population, formed after the January 2020 Senate resolution, parliamentarians have met several times to build cross-party and cross-province consensus to tackle population growth. Thus, the executive branches will find strong allies for resources for population in provincial and national parliaments. Jointly, they should also bear the responsibility to create the resources and intent to implement solutions in a serious cross-party consensus, providing continuity throughout government transitions.

Above all, the interest shown by the chief justice in the population issue, in the context of protecting human rights, will make a huge difference to tackling people’s plight regarding unwanted pregnancies, high maternal and child mortality, hunger and illiteracy — all linked to high population growth rates.

It is not for the first time that the offices of the Supreme Court have turned their attention to public welfare issues. Recall former chief justice Saqib Nisar’s suo motu action against alarming rates of population growth in 2018. The current chief justice was part of the same bench and will earn tremendous respect by demonstrating that the court takes the rights and welfare of the citizens seriously. Perhaps the judiciary may consider forming a private citizens group to prepare a scorecard on the actions recommended by an expert group and submitted to the apex court in 2019. With that oversight, we can safely hold all successive governments responsible for ensuring that all children born are planned and wanted, attain their rights to schooling and health and that they live above the poverty line of $2 a day.

Pakistan has denied basic human rights including human development to its citizens for far too long. People, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, have not been at the centre of successive governments’ priorities, resulting in rising inequalities particularly in the social sector. Important is the joint realisation and consensus that most of our predicaments are no accident. It is a matter of human rights and not the macroeconomic argument which resonates broadly, especially with the religious establishment.

Poor countries like Malawi and Nepal were able to bring about a rapid and dramatic turnaround in social progress when their citizens acquired their full democratic rights. With the framing of family planning and birth spacing as a fundamental right of families and children, rapid change can take place in Pakistan as well. Population justice can prevail.

The writer is country director, Population Council, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2022