Population control: Speakers for following Muslim countries’ models

ISLAMABAD: Renowned educationist and founder of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Syed Babar Ali has expressed concern over the increasing population, while appreciating the prime minister’s emphasis on managing poverty and population growth.

Babar Ali was addressing the symposium on population growth in the Supreme Court building called by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar. He said the twin issues of population growth and increasing poverty are related to one another.

Dilating on the policies of several countries that successfully brought the population growth under control, he referred to the example of China which only allowed one child per family for many decades and recently eased it by allowing two children for a family. Similarly, Indonesia and Singapore discouraged larger family size by disallowing school admission to the third child.

The analyst said Bangladesh has also successfully cut down population growth by fifty percent. Citing the success of Iran on the subject, he said it was able to do so despite strict enforcement of the religious doctrine. He said while China’s example would be difficult to be follow in Pakistan, but the success of the family planning by the three Islamic countries could be adopted. Babar Ali proposed linking Benazir Income Support Programme’s monthly handouts to families complying with family planning as a national policy to manage the population growth rate.

Celebrated Muslim scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil, while addressing the symposium, said that the biggest issue in the population growth is lack of knowledge, awareness and social pressure. Maulana Tariq Jameel said, “Ignorance is the biggest problem behind the population growth.”

Maulana Tariq Jameel said that mainly the villages and suburb areas of Sindh, Punjab, KP and Balochistan face the population growth issue because they don’t have knowledge. He stressed the need to organise such conferences in these far-flung localities.

The religious scholar also urged for educating the people over the matter, adding that the problem of Pakistan is not planning but education. “The problem of my country is education before planning,” he asserted.

The Maulana also saluted to PM Imran Khan for presenting the concept of Madina-like welfare state in Pakistan. He said, “Justice and peace, strong economy and education are the pillars of Islamic Welfare State.” Former federal minister and scholar Javed Jabbar said that government narrative regarding population control should be so strong and trustworthy that all segments of the society accept it. They [public] should not think that the policy is being enforced upon them. He said that the way of the governmnet should be easy and comprehendible. He advised against use of word "control".