Current estimates indicate that the population size will double to over 395 million over the next 35 years
ISLAMABAD: At the time of Partition, the population of West Pakistan stood at 30 million. Although a census has not been held for over 10 years now, it is estimated that the population of the country has grown by 170 million since 1947 to over 200 million. Current estimates indicate that the population size will double to over 395 million over the next 35 years. Forty per cent of the current population is illiterate, lives below the poverty line and does not have access to toilet facilities. There are shortages of well-paying jobs, electricity, natural gas, water, schools, hospitals, roads and other important basic commodities.
Up until the end of the Iraq-Iran war, Iranian citizens were afforded free contraceptives. China developed a “one child per family” programme to stem population growth. With the exception of the family planning programme, Pakistan currently has no viable programme to thwart the population explosion due to occur by the year 2050. If the current infrastructure cannot provide basic needs for a population of 200 million-plus, how will the government prevent an ever-deepening spiral into worsening conditions for the populace in the future? The obvious problems facing Pakistan today have not evolved from resource scarcity, but from unchecked overpopulation that is threatening to worsen over the coming decades.
Dan Hanley
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2015.
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