Islamabad, August 13, 2025 – The National Assembly of Pakistan on Wednesday unanimously passed a significant resolution aimed at reducing the country’s rapid population growth to more sustainable levels.
The initiative seeks to align demographic trends with Pakistan’s capacity to manage its renewable and non-renewable resources effectively.
The resolution, moved by Syed Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), underscored the urgent need for a coordinated national approach. Lawmakers expressed concern over the findings of the 2023 Population and Housing Census, which revealed a growth rate that threatens economic stability and social progress.
Members of the House noted that unchecked population expansion is straining Pakistan’s natural resources, aggravating climate-related challenges, and making it harder to guarantee basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment, housing, and adequate shelter for all citizens.
The resolution reaffirmed the principle that every individual and couple should have the freedom to decide the number and spacing of their children. However, it stressed that such decisions must be informed and supported so that family sizes remain compatible with available resources, ensuring a dignified quality of life.
Lowering population growth, lawmakers emphasized, is central to achieving sustainable development, strengthening human capital, and promoting equal access to opportunities nationwide.
To achieve these goals, the resolution directed the federal government, in close collaboration with provincial authorities, to expand the availability of reproductive health services, enhance public awareness, and introduce targeted social protection measures to assist low-income families. It also called for improving service quality in rural and underserved areas, where population pressures are often the highest.