ISLAMABAD - The Council of Common Interests is once again set to deliberate upon population control measures including imposition of taxes on couples having more than one child.

The CCI is expected to meet next month to re-discuss ways to control population in addition to other agenda items. The last meeting of council approved five per cent audit of different constituencies, and discussed population control mechanism, sources shared with The Nation.

Keeping in view national population of 207.74 million, with an average annual growth rate of 2.4 percent from calendar year 1998, a suggestion was floated to impose tax on couples for violation of proposed family planning ‘formula’.

About the family planning, the sources said, a CCI member proposed a policy of one child for urban and two for rural areas. It was also discussed to impose tax in case of violation.

A member also cited vasectomy mechanism. Once adopted in India, he said that all provinces should come up with formula to control the population bomb in the country. When contacted, Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Pirzada said that the country’s population was soaring at a dangerous level.

Population control mechanism needs to be adopted to control population to meet the upcoming challenges including that of water scarcity, the minister said.

“Roads, railway stations, hospitals etc are crowded as population is increasing dangerously,” he said, mentioning that the CCI also discussed ways to control population in the country.

Models of Iran or Bangladesh can be followed, he said, to avoid plethora of challenges in the future including that of water scarcity, global warming, and climate change.

New projections released by the United Nations say Pakistan is reportedly among six of the 10 largest countries in the world whose population is estimated to exceed 300 million by 2050.

The findings of the “World Population Prospects” released by the UN, also reportedly says among the 10 largest countries, five are in Asia and Pakistan is among them.

Other countries include Bangladesh, China, India and Indonesia.

Pakistan’s current population, according to recently conducted population census, has touched 207.74 million with an average annual growth rate of 2.4 per cent from calendar year 1998.

According to provisional summary results of the census, this population number include 132,189,531 rural and 75,584,989 urban population, showing an overall population growth at 57 per cent during the period 1998-2017.

The figures recorded in the census also showed 2.23 per cent growth in rural areas and 2.7 per cent in urban areas during these years.

The male population at present stands at 106,449,322, while the female population stands at 101,314,780, and the population of transgender persons at 10,418.

The first population census was conducted in 1951, the second in 1961, third in 1972, fourth in March 1981, the fifth in 1998, and the 6th was conducted in 2017.