The task force on population growth submitted its recommendations to the apex court on 30th October, 2018 to control the rapid increase in population in the country. The recommendations included establishment of national and provincial task forces to provide oversights and take critical decisions to reduce population growth, lower fertility rate and increase contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR). The national task force will be chaired by the Prime Minister while provincial task forces will be headed by the respective chief ministers. All public health facilities will be mandated to ensure Universal Access to Family Planning and Reproductive Health (FP&RH) Services to deliver family planning services and the federal government will create a five-year non-lapsable special fund for reducing population growth with an annual allocation of Rs 10 billion. An FP&RH Rights Bill will be legislated to ensure mandatory services by all general healthcare facilities in public and private sector and Early Child Marriage Restraint Act will be introduced by both federal and provincial governments. Right to promote primary healthcare for mother and child will be made mandatory as the right to education given in Article 25-A of the Constitution. A national narrative would be developed in consultation with the provinces and other stakeholders to create a sense of urgency and necessity of reducing population growth rate. Support of Ulema as enunciated in a joint declaration of Ulema made at Population Summit-2015, Islamabad would be widely advocated.

The observations of the task force on population growth, in our view, are quite comprehensive and deal with most of the aspects of population control that are often highlighted in our context. Obviously, if all the recommendations of the task force are implemented in earnest and population control is made a top priority, most of our economic problems could fade out over time. However, it is very strange that the severity of the problem has been realized and sought to be highlighted by the Chief Justice of the Apex Court rather than the executive branch of the government which is the right place to raise and resolve such issues in the interest of the country. Anyway, it is no secret that Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with a population of 207.8 million that is, according to the population census of 2017, growing at 2.4 percent per annum, which is very high as compared to most of the other countries. The population is projected to increase to 285 million by 2030 and at the present rate, will be doubled in the next 30 years, compared with the normal time of 60 years for other South Asian countries.

Of course, such a high level of population growth is unsustainable and would squander the gains made in terms of economic growth and should be unacceptable particularly when infrastructure and utilities in the country like electricity, gas and water are inadequate even for the present population. The rapidly growing population would also have negative implications for climate change, environmental degradation, deforestation and exacerbate food security and undermine economic prospects of the country. More worrying is the fact that the population of those segments of society who are least able to support and educate the children is increasing at a much higher rate. This could increase income inequality and breed chaotic conditions in society. The tragedy is that the government is so reluctant to take appropriate measures that it calls the population planning programme as population welfare programme and the small measures it has taken largely revolve around family welfare centres, reproductive health services and mobile service units. Their coverage is also very limited as the modern contraceptive prevalence rate is only 23.6 percent. On the other hand, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar is so much concerned that he has directed the government to arrange a meeting of CCI on the subject for consideration and approval of a task force to give recommendations. After approval by the CCI, a seminar shall be held by the Law and Justice Commission to increase the awareness on population explosion in the country and consider preventive measures. We are definitely in agreement with the Chief Justice and are of the view that the country is treading on a suicidal path if all the stakeholders are not taken on board and proper measures are not taken to prevent the current explosive growth in population.