Population boom drives human crisis, says Maleeha Lodhi

ISLAMABAD:

Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has warned that unchecked population growth and lack of government attention to the resulting issue contributed to and exacerbated Pakistan’s human development crisis.

“I believe that Pakistan is in the throes of this crisis with far-reaching implications for its economic development and for the welfare of its people,” she said in her keynote address on the first day of the two-day ‘Pakistan Population Summit’ organized by DawnMedia on Monday.

The summit convened federal ministers, policy makers, experts and development partners to confront Pakistan’s rapidly increasing demographic challenges.

“The crisis in human development is reflected in the fact that almost all indicators of literacy, education, health, poverty, gender disparities and other aspects of human well-being have worsened in recent years,” said Dr. Lodhi.

Referring to UNDP’s latest Global Human Development Report 2025, she said the report places Pakistan in the ‘low’ human development category with a rank of 168 out of 193 countries in the Human Development Index.

“This marks a 35-year low. In its 2023 Pakistan Human Capital Review report, the World Bank says Pakistan faces a “silent, deep human capital crisis” that will negatively impact its future economic trajectory.”

“Official documents put literacy at 60 per cent, which means 40 per cent of our population is illiterate. No country has achieved economic progress with this level of illiteracy,” said Dr. Lodhi.

Separately, at a panel discussion with PML-N MNA Shaista Pervaiz and former KP minister Taimur Jhagra, PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain dismissed the “myth” that Pakistan as a Muslim country was struggling to curb population growth.

He cited Muslim-majority countries as examples, including Iran, Indonesia and Bangladesh, with “population success stories”.