PM to head National Population Council as govt moves to tackle population growth

-- PM calls for urgent population reforms to safeguard sustainable growth

-- Shehbaz orders early meeting of National Population Council

-- PM links population planning to Pakistan's economic future

-- Family planning, women's empowerment to anchor new strategy

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday underscored the need to align population planning with national development and economic priorities, warning that rapid population growth was placing mounting pressure on the country's resources and hindering sustainable progress.

Chairing a high-level meeting on population welfare, the prime minister said maintaining a balance between population growth and available resources was essential for ensuring long-term economic stability and improving the quality of human resources.

He directed authorities to convene the inaugural meeting of the National Population Council at the earliest and ordered the immediate finalisation of its organisational structure to enable effective policymaking on population issues.

The meeting was attended by Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Minister of State for Finance and Railways Bilal Azhar Kayani, and senior government officials.

The prime minister announced that he would personally chair the National Population Council, which will comprise the chief ministers of all four provinces, the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan and other key stakeholders.

Participants were briefed on Pakistan's demographic trends and ongoing efforts to strengthen population welfare initiatives.

Officials informed the meeting that the government planned to integrate family planning initiatives with social protection programmes, while placing women's education and economic empowerment at the centre of the national population strategy.

The meeting was also told that a nationwide public awareness campaign would be launched to promote balanced population growth and encourage family planning.

During the briefing, officials cited the experiences of Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran as successful examples of population management programmes.

It was further informed that the National Population Council, working closely with provincial governments, would oversee the implementation of a coordinated nationwide population welfare campaign, while the Council's Secretariat would be established in the Ministry of Planning.