Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani Monday called for maintaining a balance between population growth and the resources equitably and prudently as high population growth rate was undermining the economic progress in the country.
He expressed these views while addressing the gathering held to mark the World Population Day where he also highlighted the need of taking steps to check the population growth to ensure availability of goods and services to the people.
Gilani said Pakistan was the sixth most populous country in the world with the highest population growth rate of 2.03 percent among the SAARC countries, resulting in annual addition of 3.6 million people. He said the population was projected to reach 210.13 million by the year 2020 and would be doubled in next 34 years.
According to the first census in 1951, the population of the four western provinces of the country was recorded at 33.7 million while climbed to 132 million in 1998, reflecting a quadruple increase in the size of population during the period.
He said the current rate of population growth left insufficient margin to maintain consumption levels, increase savings and attract investments, necessary to sustain increase in output while the socio-economic gains already accomplished were largely diluted by the trend.
He warned if the population continued growing a rate faster than that of economic development, the country would never be able to meet people’s needs for economic and social services, making everyone, especially the poorest, to suffer.
“Arresting the population growth rate will, therefore, serve the twin objectives of increasing the nation’s capacity to save and invest and simultaneously improve the per capita availability of goods and social services,” he said.
Gilani said fewer children and better-spaced families were a key to good health, adding that the birth spacing services would be provided throughout the country at all levels of health facilities free of cost or on nominal charges.
Gilani said the country had the potential for another turnaround by giving the young girls and women a chance of realising their full potential.
He called for using national resources strategically and thoughtfully to immediately start planning for the current needs of the youthful population and to the emerging needs of the 60 million children who are within the 0-15 year age-group.
The premier vowed to take the debate to the Parliament to discuss a vision about the balance between resources and numbers.
“We do need some national level consensus about our position on population size,” he said and said Pakistan would not like to become the fifth largest nation with large segments of the population falling below the poverty line.
Gilani for a balance between population and resources
