Health Minister Mustafa Kamal on Thursday claimed the government’s inclusion of Field Marshal Asim Munir in a committee tasked with tackling rapid population growth in the country reflects its seriousness about the issue.
Briefing a joint meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services and the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, he noted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had convened several high-level meetings on population management. The new committee, notified earlies this week, reflects the government’s intent to treat the issue “with the highest priority,” he added.
During the briefing, Kamal emphasized that population management required both government and public participation. He noted that the existing National Finance Commission (NFC) Award formula inadvertently incentivizes population growth by basing 82% of resource distribution on population.
“If a province succeeds in reducing its population growth, its NFC share declines, whereas a province with a larger population receives more funds,” he said, suggesting reducing the weight of population to 50% in the NFC formula.
Another factor contributing to population growth, he said, was limited availability of contraceptives. This year’s Finance Act, he noted, had granted tax exemptions on contraceptive products. He claimed that boosting access to family planning could reduce annual population growth by 1.5 million from the existing 6.7 million.
During the briefing, the committee members questioned whether population welfare remained a devolved subject after the 18th Amendment, with Kamal confirming this. The lawmakers said federal decisions on the matter could not be imposed on provincial governments after the devolution.
To the senators calling for legislation to curb unchecked population growth, the Ministry of Law noted that Parliament could not legislate on matters exclusively devolved to the provinces.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Council of Islamic Ideology said there was no disagreement on measures aimed at reducing population growth.
Pakistan is currently the fifth most populous country in the world, with estimates it could become the fourth by 2030 if current birth rates persist. Several lawmakers, including Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, have repeatedly said the country cannot achieve economic success without reducing birth rates, as existing jobs and resources are insufficient to match the needs of the burgeoning population.