PM reconstitutes population council to tackle rapid population growth

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday described the country’s rapid population growth as a primary challenge to national development, warning that sustainability depends entirely on balancing public resources with population metrics.

Presiding over a review meeting on population welfare, Sharif ordered the immediate structuring and convening of the National Population Council (NPC) to align demographic planning with broader economic stabilisation efforts.

“A balance between resources and population is the sole guarantee of sustainable development,” Sharif said.

“The rapidly growing population is putting immense pressure on national resources and stands as a major hurdle to our economic growth and human resource development.”

The prime minister will be the head of the reconstituted NPC. The council will also include the chief ministers of all four provinces, the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan and other key state stakeholders. The Ministry of Planning and Development will serve as the council’s permanent secretariat.

Briefing the participants, officials outlined structural adjustments to federal welfare policies, noting that social safety nets and financial support initiatives will now be directly linked to family planning milestones.

The briefing also emphasised that female literacy and economic empowerment would serve as core pillars of the state’s population control strategy, alongside aggressive public awareness campaigns.

Officials pointed to successful demographic management models in other Muslim-majority countries specifically Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran as viable blueprints for Pakistan’s domestic execution.

Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and other also attended the meeting.