In a major structural shift highlighting the state’s escalating demographic crisis, the federal government has formally inducted Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir into the newly formed National Population Council. The decision signals a strategic move to leverage the execution power of the military command after years of stalled civilian initiatives failed to contain the country’s rapid birth rate.
The disclosure was made by Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination Syed Mustafa Kamal during a high-profile, joint parliamentary hearing of the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services and the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Thursday. The emergency session, co-chaired by Senators Amir Waliuddin Chishti and Samina Mumtaz Zehri, was convened to address deep structural policy deficits as Pakistan rapidly targets the fourth spot on the global population index, on track to surpass Indonesia by 2030.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has established the National Population Council to address Pakistan’s rapidly growing population and formulate effective policies for sustainable population management.https://t.co/P2ZjBV1Irc#DialoguePakistan #PM #FieldMarshal #NationalCouncil pic.twitter.com/QhgoSVth9W
— Dialogue Pakistan (@DialoguePak) July 7, 2026
Restructuring the Fiscal Equation: The NFC Dilemma
Briefing the joint committee, Health Minister Kamal detailed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has elevated population management to an absolute national security priority. The newly mobilized apex committee includes the Prime Minister, provincial Chief Ministers, the regional leadership of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 11 federal cabinet ministers, and Field Marshal Munir.
Kamal leveled sharp structural criticism at the current National Finance Commission (NFC) Award framework, identifying it as a major, unintended institutional driver of the population crisis:
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The Flawed Incentive Structure: Under the active formula, a staggering 82% of federal resource distribution to provinces is calculated solely based on total population size.
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The Revenue Penalty: Kamal noted that under this architecture, if a province successfully executes robust family planning programs and lowers its growth rate, its total share of federal funding drops, whereas provinces with unchecked growth are financially rewarded with larger fiscal disbursements.
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The Proposed Reform: The Health Minister proposed a sweeping modification to the formula, arguing that population weightage should be capped at 50%. The remaining 32% should be repurposed into a direct financial incentive pool to reward provinces that successfully lower their reproductive metrics.
Supply-Side Logistics and Religious Consensus
The Ministry of Health intends to augment fiscal reforms with aggressive supply-side logistics. Kamal revealed that Pakistan currently registers an unsustainable 6.7 million births annually. To counter this, the federal government has officially implemented comprehensive tax exemptions on contraceptive products in the active budget, aiming to eliminate supply deficits. Ministry estimates project that expanding access to basic family planning utilities could lower the annual population surge by at least 1.5 million individuals.
On the ideological front, the council secured a significant breakthrough. A senior representative from the Council of Islamic Ideology formally briefed the lawmakers that there is absolutely no sectarian friction or theological disagreement regarding state measures engineered to curb rapid, unchecked population growth.
However, the committee ran into complex legal hurdles regarding enforcement. Following the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment, population welfare was completely devolved to individual provinces. When lawmakers demanded rigid federal legislation to mandate caps, representatives from the Ministry of Law intervened, clarifying that Parliament lacks the statutory authority to impose population mandates onto areas explicitly devolved to provincial assemblies. The committee subsequently directed the Law Ministry, parliamentary bodies, and religious scholars to construct a consensus-based legal strategy ahead of another joint session next week.
Investigation Launched Into Balochistan Nursing Scholarship Scandal
Beyond the demographic brief, the joint committee moved rapidly to address allegations of institutional fraud affecting professional education in the Global South. Senator Jan Mohammad presented a formal grievance regarding a special educational development program under which 150 students from Balochistan were transferred to the federal capital on state scholarships.
The grievance focused on 47 nursing students admitted into the Health Services Academy in Islamabad. According to the petition, the students spent two full years completing coursework before discovering that the specific nursing degree program did not actually exist, and that the fallback diploma being issued lacked recognition from the Pakistan Nursing Council.
Exposing a severe regulatory failure, Senator Mohammad revealed that the World Bank had already disbursed 36 million rupees to finance the project. He demanded an immediate criminal inquiry into official negligence and institutional injustice targeting Balochistan’s youth. Health Minister Kamal assured the Senate panels that the government would not tolerate academic exploitation of Balochistan’s students, pledging to comprehensively resolve the accreditation dilemma within seven business days. The committee issued immediate summonses directing the Directors General of Health and Nursing from Balochistan to appear before the panel to provide formal testimony.
