ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s population is on track to cross the 300 million threshold by 2030 and skyrocket to approximately 390 million by 2050, according to a briefing given to the Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives on Monday. Dr. Abdul Wali Khan, the Director General of Health at the Ministry of National Health Services, presented the alarming demographic trajectories to the committee, which met under the chairpersonship of Senator Quratulain Marri. The panel expressed severe concern over the state’s data deficiencies, learning that the critical Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) has been delayed by over eight years, heavily crippling the government’s ability to access quantified population indicators and execute targeted family planning policies.
The committee also scrutinized the financial and operational execution of the Rs2 billion National Action Plan for population control. Officials revealed that while 11 million contraceptive products were procured using public funds back in 2022, a substantial volume of these supplies remains entirely unused in warehouses and the open market. In response to these systemic gaps, the Senate panel firmly directed the relevant health authorities to complete the pending demographic survey by June. The legislative scrutiny follows Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent establishment of the high-powered National Population Council (NPC)—a body chaired by the prime minister and comprising provincial chief ministers and military leadership—to forge a unified national strategy to counter the country’s rapid demographic expansion.
