Two children per family enough: CJP

ISLAMABAD: Terming the burgeoning population a ticking time bomb, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday suggested that two children per family would help control it.

The suggestion from the top judge came during the hearing of a suo motu case pertaining to unchecked population growth. The chief justice directed the government, civil society and religious scholars to takemeasures to control the burgeoning population growth.

“The growing population is putting a strain on the country’s resources,” the bench observed and emphasised the need for a countrywide campaign to combat it. “This is the question of future generations. The entire nation will have to work together for family planning and wage a war against the population growth,” chief justice observed.

A day earlier, the apex court had inquired about the credibility of population surveys and said any plan would go in vain if the statistics were not accurate. The chief justice said the population situation would be serious if the government didn’t implement recommendations of the task force tasked with controlling the rapid population growth.

The apex court was told by the secretary health that the first population control target would be met by 2025 and the second in 2030. He said following the government measures the population growth rate ratio would be 1.5% in 2025 while five years later it would reach 1.4%.

The CJP asked the secretary to shed light on credibility of population surveys and censuses. “How much credible these survey actually are?” he questioned. Justice Nisar told the secretary to convey to the government that the consequences of overpopulation would be disastrous in future.

“A time will come when the gap between resources and requirements would be too wide to fix. The court will keep a check on implementation of recommendations of the task force.” On Nov 20 last year, the centre and the provinces on orders of the apex court decided to form task forces within their jurisdictions to control the increasing population growth.