Population planning

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar while heading a three-member bench hearing a suo motu case on increasing population in the country observed that "if we are unable to control population, the goals in education, water, employment and health sectors can't be achieved." While the Chief Justice did not note the negative impact of high population growth on environment which, in turn, acts as an accelerant in deteriorating social sector performance, yet he did highlight an extremely important factor ignored by successive Pakistani governments that effectively disabled themselves from improving the percentage of those benefiting from social sector and physical infrastructure development. The Chief Justice suggested that lessons must be learnt from the past to 'move forward.'
A long-term advocate of population planning Dr Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Sindh Welfare Population representative, informed the court that as per research and contrary to the general belief, religion is not the deterrent to effective population planning while ineffective advocacy and unavailability of contraceptives are major deterrents. She argued that the issue must be addressed at the grassroots level, with proactive advocacy of population planning a key component; and pointed out that research revealed that at present 21 percent of couples in Sindh do not have access to contraceptives therefore there is a need to ensure availability. Dr Shahnaz Wazir Ali recommended legislation at the national level with implementation left to the provinces.
Economists and social sector experts have been emphasizing sustainable growth in population as a means to ensure that an increasing percentage of the population benefits from investment in key social sectors within a developing economy and developed countries facing a decline in their population to below sustainable levels need to provide incentives to couples to have more children. While several developed countries now extend monetary incentives to ensure their population growth rate rises to a sustainable level, yet developing countries like Pakistan have yet to show any progress in reducing the rate of population growth.
The family planning (FP) 2020 initiative as an outcome of the London Summit on Family Planning 2012 is noteworthy as it envisages a public-private partnership inclusive of pharmaceutical companies, non-governmental organisations, governments and multinational agencies to address population dynamics. FP2020 was established as the new key international platform for cooperation on 'modern' contraception use as part of family planning, including the concerted effort to focus on long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), such as the hormonal implant Jadelle, as per its website.
It is indeed unfortunate that no Pakistani government has focused on population planning as a means to tackle poverty in the country. Imran Khan in his address to the nation after his victory at the polls, did reiterate that his administration would look at the Chinese model with the objective of determining how China lifted its population from poverty. The one child policy is not what Imran Khan can possibly implement in Pakistan not only because as a democratically-elected leader he would not have the wherewithal to implement such a policy but also because this policy would fuel a religious uproar. A better option would be, as advised by the Chief Justice, to look at our past failures in this regard and learn lessons and request sector experts to present him with a viable plan that can achieve results.