The problem of overpopulation is eating at our roots like termite. When our country came into being, the population of West Pakistan, now Pakistan, was only 30 million today it is about 200 million. The government established a department of ‘family planning,’ which proved totally ineffective because family planning requires raising literacy level and not bureaucratic measures. Had the government invested billions that were spent on family planning on education, we would have logged decrease in population, in proportion to increase in the ratio of education. Meanwhile, our population continues to grow while the resources continue to shrink at a very dangerous speed. No literate society anywhere allows its population to outgrow its resources but an illiterate society lacks such sense and allows unbridled overgrowth of population resulting in poverty and discontentment, leading to general unrest and an unstable polity. Who will address this serious issue because our political forces seem busy doing nothing but only raising deceptive slogans to hoodwink the public?
MUHAMMAD AZAM,
Muzaffargarh, December 27.