Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday warned that increasing population and climate change were existential threats to the country.
Pakistan’s population has crossed 250 million, making it the sixth largest country in the world, while it is among the top 10 nations categorised as the most vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change.
The country has been feeling the heat of a galloping population as its meagre resources are proving unequal to the task. The problem has been complicated by erratic rains, floods, melting glaciers and cloud bursts, which are linked to global warming.
Addressing a gathering of businessmen in Karachi, Aurangzeb highlighted that the problems were grave for the country’s future.
“I am very clear: we cannot realise the potential of this country unless we address two existential issues — population and climate change,” Aurangzeb said.
He said that it was not enough to say that Pakistan contributed less than one per cent to global carbon emissions, but faced climate change-induced devastation.
“Only saying that we do not make emissions, but have to adapt, so demonstrate it,” he said, adding that the county first utilises the available funds.
Talking about the population explosion, he said, it was not just the level of population but also related issues like child stunting and poverty. “These are all areas on which the federation and the provinces have to work together,” Aurangzeb said.
The minister said that the economic issues would be solved in a few years, but climate change and population were existential issues and urgent enough to be addressed immediately.
Pakistan leaders are lately talking about the issue of increasing population, and lawmakers last month called for declaring the rapid population growth a national emergency and integrating population welfare into all development and policy frameworks.
They were attending a meeting of the Parliamentary Forum on Population, organised by the Population Council, in collaboration with UNFPA.
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a constitutional body tasked to help the government Islamise laws, also endorsed birth spacing and recommended involving religious leaders for it. The CII held a one-day consultative session in collaboration with the Population Council in July.
However, there is little acceptance of the importance of controlling population as conservative segments consider it population control against Islam.
