Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, on Wednesday, warned that Pakistan\u2019s future potential could be severely undermined unless the country addresses rapid population growth and climate change, describing both as existential challenges that require sustained policy reforms, institutional coordination and long-term financing.
\nAddressing the World Population Day 2026 commemorative conference, Aurangzeb said the government\u2019s efforts had evolved from the National Population Stabilisation Plan to the National Population Council, bringing together civil and military leadership, provincial governments and the federation to ensure effective implementation.
\n\u201cWe have known the \u2018what\u2019 and the \u2018why\u2019 for the longest time. The real question has always been the \u2018how\u2019 and the \u2018who\u2019,\u201d he said, adding that the council would help deliver results through clear targets, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and regular performance reviews.
\n\u201cYou can only deliver what you can measure,\u201d Aurangzeb said, assuring the Health Ministry of the Finance Ministry\u2019s continued support.
\nHe said governments often prepare budgets with short-term priorities in mind, but population growth and climate change demand long-term planning. \u201cIf we do not address these two existential issues, then by the time Pakistan completes 100 years in 2047, we are not going to achieve our true potential,\u201d he warned.
\nHighlighting recent measures, Aurangzeb said the government had removed the sales tax on contraceptives in the federal budget, calling it an important tactical intervention that would improve affordability and produce positive results even in the short term.
\nHe, however, stressed that structural reforms were equally important, particularly the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award formula, where population currently accounts for about 82 percent of resource distribution among provinces.
\nCalling the existing formula \u201cnot sustainable,\u201d he said the population weight in future NFC discussions would have to be reviewed.
\nOn financing, Aurangzeb said budgetary resources alone would not be sufficient. He revealed that the World Bank\u2019s 10-year Country Partnership Framework, signed last year, includes population as one of its three pillars, with a focus on reducing learning poverty\u2014particularly girls out of school\u2014and tackling child stunting.
\nHe said around $600 million to $700 million annually would be available under the framework to finance population-related interventions.
\nThe minister also lauded the nationwide birth-spacing (Waqfa) awareness campaign, describing it as \u201cabsolutely brilliant,\u201d and highlighted the media\u2019s role in changing public attitudes. Referring to a recent visit to Karachi, he said he had visited a girls\u2019 school supported by Shehzad Roy\u2019s Zindagi Trust, underscoring the importance of girls\u2019 education.
\nDrawing lessons from Bangladesh, Iran and Indonesia, Aurangzeb said all three countries reduced their population growth rates to around one percent over 10 to 15 years by focusing on girls\u2019 education, increasing women\u2019s participation in the workforce and securing the support of religious scholars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, on Wednesday, warned that Pakistan\u2019s future potential could be severely undermined unless the country addresses rapid population growth and climate change, describing both as existential challenges that require sustained policy reforms, institutional coordination and long-term financing. Addressing the World Population Day 2026 commemorative conference, Aurangzeb said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100299,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100275\/revisions\/100299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}