World Population Day: ‘Number of Pakistanis has reached high-risk levels’

Country still struggling with basic issues such as contraception.

KARACHI:

The population of Pakistan and the rate at which it is increasing has reached levels that are considered ‘high risk’.

These views were shared by speakers at a press conference arranged by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) at Karachi Press Club to mark World Population Day on Thursday. Unless the society attains an understanding of family planning principles, it will stand nowhere in the future, they warned.



The world is enjoying fruits of scientific progress in education and health, while Pakistanis are still struggling to understand the basic concepts of contraception, the speakers lamented. Gynaecologist Dr Sher Shah Syed, Mehnaz Rehman from the Aurat Foundation, Dr Nighat Shah  from Aga Khan Hospital,  Dr Mirza Ali Azhar and  Dr Qazi. M Wasiq from the PMA spoke on the occasion.

“Everyone knows that health, education, empowerment, employment and terrorism are all linked to poverty,” pointed out Dr Syed. “On World Population Day, we should know our responsibility in order to progress in a pious way.”

Dr Syed shared that mothers in Sindh are giving birth to nearly 33,000 children every day. “This is an alarming situation,” he said. “How can we grow into an educated class, if we do not have the resources to nurture them?”

According to him, most criminals are born out of poverty. “If the parents have no resources, our youth will fall into ill-health, illiteracy and terrorism,” he said. “Religious scholars and journalists should recognise their responsibility and let the society know about the fruits of family planning.” The civil society should also act positive. The Sindh government should also draw a comprehensive policy to overcome the population rates, he added.



Mehnaz Rehman from Aurat Foundation spoke about gender discrimination in our society. She felt that it resulted from poor understanding of family planning. “In rural areas, a woman gives birth to a son after seven daughters. How is it possible that the parents would not discriminate their daughters?” Rehman reasoned that preference for a son results from illiteracy. “Women keep giving birth until they have a male child.”

Due to the excessive population in the country, women suffer the most apart from health and education, said Dr Shah. “We cannot develop a proper civil society, if we cannot stop our population,” she said. Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Iran all are Muslim countries yet they have overcome their population crisis.

“It is wrong to believe that women gain weight if they use family planning pills,” said Dr Shah. “Obesity comes from overeating, not from using the pills.” The main reason behind the failure of family planning is a lack of knowledge of science and a lack of understanding towards religion, she added. Dr Mirza Ali Azhar also concluded in his speech that the key factor to attain family planning is education. Anchor persons in the electronic media should know the responsibility and highlight the issues related to overpopulation, he suggested.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2014.