Dr Shabaneh says blaming people for growing population was misguided
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has urged Pakistan to end the practice of linking the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award to population size, calling instead for the allocation of resources based on performance in education, women’s empowerment, and human capital development.
Speaking at a press conference here, UNFPA’s Representative in Pakistan Dr Luay Shabaneh said while population growth was often seen as a burden, Pakistan’s growing numbers should be treated as an opportunity—provided the country invests in its people.
“The NFC Award must reward provinces and districts that are investing in people, educating girls, reducing the number of out-of-school children, closing the gender gap, and empowering women to decide when and how many children they want,” he stressed.
According to UNFPA estimates, Pakistan’s population has reached 255.2 million in 2025, with nearly 4 million people added each year—466 every hour, or eight every minute.
The challenge was not the population size itself, but the fact that millions of people, particularly women and girls, were denied the freedom to make reproductive choices,Dr Shabaneh explained.
Drawing from the UNFPA’s State of World Population Report 2025 titled “The Real Fertility Crisis: The Pursuit of Reproductive Agency in a Changing World”, he said only one in three women in Pakistan can make decisions about their reproductive health.
“This is not a population crisis—it’s a reproductive rights crisis,” he remarked, noting that two-thirds of women in Pakistan were unable to freely decide when or whether to have children.
The report highlights that over 18 per cent of girls in Pakistan were married before the age of 18, and the adolescent birth rate stands at 41 births per 1,000 girls aged 15–19 years. “Every 45 minutes, a woman dies from a pregnancy-related complication. Despite 32 per cent of married women using modern contraception, over 16 per cent have an unmet need for family planning.”
Dr Shabaneh said that blaming people for the growing population was misguided. “They are victims of a broken system,” he said. “It’s not their fault—they were never given the choice. The failure is collective: governments, global organisations, and development stakeholders have not done enough.”
Each year, Pakistan sees around 9 million unintended pregnancies, a grim indication of how little control women have over their reproductive lives, he said. “We need to educate married and unmarried individuals alike, so they can make informed choices about family planning. Without this freedom, we cannot expect sustainable development,” he added.
The UNFPA-YouGov survey featured in the report reveals that globally one in five people do not have the number of children they want, with economic hardship, housing issues, job insecurity, and gender inequality being major obstacles. One in three adults has experienced an unintended pregnancy, and 40 per cent of people over 50 report having fewer children than they wished due to systemic challenges.
UNFPA warns against coercive or target-driven fertility policies, calling them ineffective and harmful. Instead, it advocates for rights-based approaches that provide affordable healthcare, quality education, decent employment, gender-equal laws, and social protection systems. “Whether people want many children or none, they deserve systems that support their choices—not panic-driven policy,” the report states.
Dr Shabaneh reaffirmed UNFPA’s support for Pakistan, saying the agency stands ready to help the country design solutions that respect rights, enable reproductive choices, and turn its demographic advantage into a development success. “It’s time to invest in people, not just count them.”