A joint meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health and the Functional Committee on Human Rights convened in Islamabad to address rapid population growth, the National Population Coordination and Reproductive Health Policy 2026, the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award formula, contraceptive availability, HIV cases, and legal reforms. The session was jointly chaired by Senators Amir Waliuddin Chishti and Samina Mumtaz Zehri.
Health Minister Briefs on Government Initiatives
Health Minister Mustafa Kamal briefed the committees, stating that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had chaired multiple meetings on the population issue and constituted a high-level committee comprising Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the finance minister, and the planning minister. Kamal emphasized that the government is taking the matter seriously and making major decisions at every level.
The minister highlighted that 82% of the current NFC Award is distributed based on population, which inadvertently encourages provinces to increase their population. He proposed reducing the population weightage to 50% to promote population control. Kamal also noted that approximately 6.7 million children are born in Pakistan annually, and better availability of contraceptives could reduce annual births by about 1.5 million. He confirmed that taxes on contraceptive medicines have already been withdrawn.
Need for Legislation and Constitutional Hurdles
Committee members stressed the necessity of legislation to curb unchecked population growth. However, officials from the Ministry of Law clarified that the subject has been devolved to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, meaning Parliament cannot legislate on it. A representative of the Council of Islamic Ideology stated that no school of thought opposes efforts to prevent unchecked population growth.
The committee directed religious scholars, the law ministry, and relevant institutions to build consensus and decided to convene another joint meeting within the next few days.
Irregularities in Balochistan Scholarships Raised
During the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health, Senator Jan Mohammad raised alleged irregularities in scholarships awarded to 150 students from Balochistan and called for an investigation. He reported that 150 students, including 47 nursing students, were sent to Islamabad under a World Bank-funded programme and studied at the Health Services Academy for two years. They later discovered that the academy did not offer a nursing degree programme and instead awarded a Diploma in Associate Nursing, which is not registered with the Pakistan Nursing Council.
Senator Mohammad stated that Rs36 million had been spent on the project and claimed that four nursing colleges could have been established in Balochistan with the same amount.
