Lawmakers discuss population growth

Health minister says current NFC formula encourages population increase

ISLAMABAD:

A joint meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health and the Functional Committee on Human Rights discussed rapid population growth, the National Population Coordination and Reproductive Health Policy 2026, the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award formula, the availability of contraceptives, HIV cases and legal reforms.

The meeting, jointly chaired by Senators Amir Waliuddin Chishti and Samina Mumtaz Zehri, was briefed by Health Minister Mustafa Kamal, who said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had chaired several meetings on the population issue and constituted a high-level committee comprising Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the finance minister and the planning minister. He said the government was taking the issue seriously and major decisions were being made at every level.

The minister said 82pc of the current NFC Award is distributed on the basis of population, which encourages provinces to increase their population. He said the government had proposed reducing the population weightage to 50pc to promote population control.

Mr Kamal said around 6.7 million children are born in Pakistan every year and better availability of contraceptives could reduce annual births by about 1.5 million. He added that taxes on contraceptive medicines had already been withdrawn.

Committee members stressed the need for legislation to curb unchecked population growth. However, officials of the Ministry of Law said the subject had been devolved to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment and Parliament could not legislate on it.

A representative of the Council of Islamic Ideology said no school of thought opposed efforts to prevent unchecked population growth. The committee directed religious scholars, the law ministry and relevant institutions to build consensus and decided to convene another joint meeting within the next few days.

During the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health, Senator Jan Mohammad raised alleged irregularities in scholarships awarded to 150 students from Balochistan and sought an investigation.

He said 150 students, including 47 nursing students, were sent to Islamabad under a World Bank-funded programme and studied at the Health Services Academy for two years. Later, they discovered that the academy did not offer a nursing degree programme and instead awarded a Diploma in Associate Nursing, which was not registered with the Pakistan Nursing Council.

He said Rs36 million had been spent on the project and claimed that four nursing colleges could have been established in Balochistan with the same amount.