ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan has been considering leasing out 4.4m acres of land for corporate farming, experts warned Pakistan would not be able to overcome food security or boost the agri economy without taking measures to control its burgeoning population.

Former senator Javed Jabbar said there was an “urgent need” to expand access to family planning clinics, make contraceptives widely available as well as increase awareness to control population explosion.

“While the potential impact of increased and qualitative yield from land leased to others can generate new jobs, help reduce food insecurity, improve nutrition, and boost exports, such innovation is most unlikely to significantly reduce population growth-- the ticking time bomb that explodes every day,” Mr Jabbar, who has a vast experience in the field of family planning, said while talking to Dawn.

Two-day moot on population starts at Supreme Court today

“There is an urgent need to expand access to family planning clinics, mass availability of all contraceptive options, raise literacy, education and participation of women in the organised labour force ....make references to family planning a regular part of speeches and statements by the state, government, and political leaders,” Javed Jabbar suggested.

A former bureaucrat with expertise in family planning said that the government should focus on population control; otherwise, all the efforts to increase agriculture production would prove futile.

“At the time of independence, population of East Pakistan [now Bangaldesh] was more than the population of West Pakistan but today the population of Bangladesh is over 160 million while Pakistan’s population is around 250 million. We need to take all possible steps to control the population, which has become a ticking time bomb, and will consume all our resources,” he claimed.

National Conference on Population

Meanwhile, the Population Program Wing (PPW) of the Ministry of Health Services (NHS) in collaboration with the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) will organise a two-day National Conference ‘Resilient Pakistan: Calibrating Population and Resources” from today at the Supreme Court.

The Population and Housing Census 2017 revealed numerous challenges, including 40pc of the population living below the poverty line, 22.8 million children out of school, 9.5 million (38pc) stunted children and around 10,000 maternal deaths per year.

Moreover, the rapidly growing population has posed many environmental challenges such as the scarcity and depletion of natural resources such as water, forests, green gases, clean air etc. It is also impacting the social and development sectors, including education, employment, national savings and finances.

At a news conference, Population Director General Sabina Imran said recognising the consequences of rapid population growth, the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018 had taken Suo Moto notice and established a National Task Force on Population and Family Planning.

The Task Force developed a set of recommendations which were endorsed by the Supreme Court and approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI).

“These recommendations aim to increase the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) to 50pc by 2024 and 60pc by 2030, lower the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to 2.8 and 2.2 by 2024 and 2030 respectively, and reduce the Population Growth Rate (PG) to 1.5pc by 2024 and 1.1pc by 2030. Based on these recommendations, a National Action Plan (2019-24) was launched, incorporating the best practices by our neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Turkey and Iran,” she said.

“The purpose of this conference is to take stock of the achievements, identify the difficulties faced, pre-empt the emerging challenges, and deliberate upon as to how best we can address population and development agenda in Pakistan and as to how we can achieve the targets of National Population Action Plan, Pakistan’s Commitments at ICPD25 Nairobi Summit, Pakistan’s Commitments for 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” she said.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2023