KARACHI: First Lady Begum Samina Alvi at the opening session of Population Research Conference 2023 at Institute of Business Management (IBM) stated that population explosion is one of the biggest challenge faced by Pakistan, if not controlled then population of Pakistan will grow to 36 crore by 2050 and currently we are fifth most populous country in the world. It is wonderful that IBM is conducting research on topics like fertility planning, maternal and child health, population growth, climate change and social inclusion because it is need of the hour.

First Lady Begum Samina Alvi in her address stated that population explosion results in urbanization and densely populated cities which gives birth to demographic challenges like lack of resources and unequal distribution of resources. This makes the situation worse for people living below the poverty line. Resultant people below poverty line don't have access to proper education, food, shelter and health facilities.

First Lady further mentioned that there is lack of awareness regarding contraceptive pills and women especially in the rural areas are unaware of it. In some parts of the country it is difficult for women to access contraceptive pills due to different reasons. Every year there are approximately ninety lac pregnancies in Pakistan and out of them fifty percent are unwanted pregnancies. Due to unwanted pregnancies there is increase in population, maternal mortality rate and infant morality rate.

First Lady in her address to the audience stated that,” The social and economic strain caused by overpopulation can be alleviated, in part, by investing in women’s empowerment and, in particular, girls’ education.”

In the end, First Lady concluded her address by appreciating IBM for its work on such an important topic of population growth In Pakistan and requested the administration to share the results of research with relevant stake holders so that adequate steps can be taken to solve this problem.