Pakistan debates inflation, unemployment, failing schools, and collapsing hospitals almost every day. Yet the one issue quietly sitting beneath all these problems rarely enters our national conversation: our rapidly growing, uncontrolled population. It is the single most powerful force dragging millions of Pakistanis deeper into poverty; however, it is still the issue we whisper about, treat as taboo, or pretend does not exist.
With over 250 million people and one of the highest fertility rates in the region, we add millions of new citizens every year without the economic or social capacity to support them. The most painful consequences are not in policy documents or development graphs; they are inside the homes of those who can least afford them. Across countless low-income households, parents are trapped in a cycle of survival. They are raising four, five, or even seven children on incomes that barely support two. Mothers who are anaemic and exhausted are forced to have more children. Fathers juggling multiple jobs feel the weight of responsibility crushing them. These families face malnutrition, stunting, school drop-outs, child labour, and deepening poverty that passes from one generation to the next.
Despite this reality, openly discussing contraception or even basic family planning remains culturally sensitive. In many homes, the words “protection” or “birth control” are whispered with embarrassment or shame. Decades of misinformation, patriarchal norms, and lack of education have kept contraception in the shadows. The gap between what is needed and what is socially acceptable continues to widen.
Family planning means responsible parenting, deciding how many children one can raise with adequate nutrition, education, safety, and opportunity. This is where the state must step in. Population control cannot rely on individual awareness alone; it requires a national framework. Pakistan’s government needs to prioritise family planning with the same urgency it gives to security, economic reforms, and infrastructure development. Public messaging must be clear, consistent, and frequent, not silent or half-hearted.
The government must invest in targeted awareness campaigns that reach televisions, radios, social media, community centres, mosques, and schools. Lady health workers, who form the backbone of Pakistan’s grassroots health infrastructure, must be properly trained, compensated, and supported to educate families, especially men, about responsible parenthood. Curriculum reform is essential, so students learn early about health, family planning, and the economic consequences of large households. Religious scholars should be engaged to counter myths and clarify that Islam does not forbid planning; it promotes responsibility and wellbeing.
It is time we stopped whispering about population control as if it were shameful. It is time we treated it as the urgent social and economic priority it is.
Countries facing similar challenges have done exactly this. Bangladesh, Iran, and others normalised the conversation decades ago, recognising that economic progress depends on enabling families to make informed choices. Pakistan, however, still treats the subject as taboo, leaving millions without the tools to build better futures. This silence is costly. Every unplanned child deepens pressure on already overstretched schools, hospitals, and public resources. We keep reacting to the symptoms, building more facilities, launching new poverty-alleviation programmes, while rarely addressing the root cause: too many households with more children than they can feed, educate, or protect. Until the state acknowledges this openly, its policies will continue to fall short. Pakistan cannot build a prosperous future if its households remain locked in cycles of deprivation. A nation’s strength is shaped in its homes, and a child’s future is determined largely by the environment they are born into. When families are empowered to plan, children grow up healthier, better educated, and more capable of contributing to society.
It is time we stopped whispering about population control as if it were shameful. It is time we treated it as the urgent social and economic priority it is. Responsible parenthood is neither a Western idea nor a threat to cultural values. If we want a stable, secure, and prosperous Pakistan, the conversation must begin in our homes and needs to be amplified by a government willing to finally speak boldly, clearly, and publicly about the crisis we can no longer afford to ignore.
The writer is a former State Minister for Education and Professional Training, former Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme and Director at Media Times.