Daily Times

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday stressed the need for reviewing the formula of resources distribution under the NFC award, giving incentives to provinces for the successful execution of the population control programme.

Addressing a ceremony organized in collaboration with the British High Commission to promote awareness in tackling the challenge of population control, he said it was unfortunate that 80 per cent weightage was given to the size of the population while distributing resources under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. “The time has come; we need to seriously review the NFC formula for distribution of resources, while there ought to be some weightage for the population but equivalent to demographic efficiency or successful population control programme,” he said. He said there was a big contradiction itself in the efforts that there was no incentive for provinces to successfully carry out the population control programme.”. . . it is a sad thing that we have persisted with a formula that is very negative for the population control programme.” The minister questioned how a province could effectively execute the population control programme when it knew that a “reduced number of the people means getting less financial resources.”

Highlighting the importance of a controlled population, Ahsan Iqbal said developed nations in the world had achieved progress and prosperity by creating a balance between resources and population needs. Unfortunately, the minister said Pakistan could not make any noteworthy success in its population control programme due to some socioeconomic, cultural and educational barriers. He said national consensus should be evolved in reviewing the NFC award formula, urging the experts to put forward suggestions to the policymakers, accordingly. The minister said the census should not be limited only to the population count but also collecting the development and economic data of provinces.

Without controlling the fast growth of the population, he said the country would not be able to judiciously distribute national resources and provide basic facilities like health and education to its citizens. “Our future is linked with that how fast we control our population growth.” Ahsan Iqbal said the field operation of the 7th population and housing census had been completed and now the digitally collected data was being verified by the experts. Sharing some initial results of the census, he said, “There is no such country in Asia that has that kind of population growth rate.”