Mahjabeen Channa

Everyday across Pakistan, thousands of babies are born into a nation already struggling to provide enough schools, hospitals, jobs, clean drinking water, and affordable housing for its people. Each new life brings hope to a family, yet collectively these births are adding to one of the country’s most pressing development challenges rapid population growth.

Population is often described as a nation’s greatest asset. Countries with healthy, educated, and skilled citizens can transform their demographic strength into economic prosperity. However, when population growth outpaces economic development and public services, the same demographic advantage can become a heavy burden. Pakistan finds itself at precisely this crossroads.

Despite decades of development planning, millions of Pakistanis continue to live below or just above the poverty line. Families across urban slums and remote villages struggle to earn enough to feed their children, send them to school, or access quality healthcare. For many households, every additional child means stretching already limited resources even further. Parents who dream of providing better lives for their children often find themselves trapped in an endless cycle of financial hardship.

The effects are visible everywhere. Overcrowded classrooms, overburdened hospitals, congested cities, rising unemployment, and increasing pressure on natural resources have become part of everyday life. These challenges are not caused by population growth alone, but rapid growth undoubtedly magnifies each of them.

One of the underlying reasons for Pakistan’s continuing population increase is the limited use of family planning services. Although modern contraceptive methods are available through government health facilities and private providers, many couples still lack access to accurate information or face cultural, social, and economic barriers that prevent them from using these services. In some communities, misconceptions and misinformation continue to discourage healthy birth spacing.

Family planning should never be viewed simply as limiting the number of children. It is about empowering parents to make informed decisions regarding the timing and spacing of pregnancies. When families are able to plan responsibly, mothers are healthier, children receive better care, household finances improve, and communities become more resilient.

Unfortunately, public awareness regarding reproductive health remains insufficient. Many young couples enter marriage with little understanding of maternal health, birth spacing, nutrition, or the long-term economic implications of raising large families. Early marriages and closely spaced pregnancies continue to increase health risks for both mothers and newborns, while contributing to higher healthcare costs for families and the state.

Pakistan’s healthcare system is already operating under immense pressure. Public hospitals frequently struggle with shortages of doctors, nurses, medicines, and diagnostic facilities. Every year, millions more people depend on services that have not expanded at the same pace as the population.

The responsibility for addressing population growth does not rest with one institution alone. The Population Welfare Department has long worked to promote reproductive health and family planning through counseling, community outreach, and family welfare centers. However, its efforts are often constrained by limited financial resources, staffing shortages, and inadequate outreach in remote districts. Strengthening this institution is essential if Pakistan is serious about slowing unsustainable population growth.

Equally important is Pakistan’s National Program for Lady Health Workers. For decades, Lady Health Workers have served as the bridge between healthcare facilities and communities. They visit households, educate mothers about maternal and child health, promote immunization, encourage nutrition, and provide guidance on family planning. Their trusted relationship with local communities makes them one of Pakistan’s most effective public health resources. Expanding their coverage and strengthening their training could significantly improve awareness and access to reproductive health services.

Civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations have also played a valuable role by reaching communities where government services remain limited. Through awareness campaigns, youth engagement, women’s empowerment initiatives, and community education programs, they have helped promote informed family planning and healthier lifestyles. Greater collaboration between government institutions and development partners can further amplify these efforts.

Perhaps the single most powerful intervention, however, is the education of girls. Around the world, evidence consistently shows that educated women tend to marry later, have healthier pregnancies, participate more actively in the workforce, and make informed decisions about family size. Educating girls is therefore not merely an investment in individual futures—it is an investment in national development, poverty reduction, and public health.

If Pakistan’s population continues to expand rapidly without corresponding improvements in employment, education, healthcare, housing, and infrastructure, the consequences will become increasingly severe. More people will compete for fewer jobs. Demand for food, water, electricity, transport, and housing will continue to rise. Agricultural land will shrink under expanding settlements, while climate change and water scarcity will place additional stress on already fragile natural resources.

The challenge is not that Pakistan has too many people; rather, it is that population growth is outpacing the country’s ability to provide opportunities and essential services. A growing population can become a tremendous strength only when people are healthy, educated, productive, and economically empowered.

Addressing this challenge requires political commitment and sustained public investment. Expanding voluntary family planning services, strengthening the Population Welfare Department, increasing support for Lady Health Workers, improving maternal and child healthcare, investing in girls’ education, empowering women economically, and launching nationwide public awareness campaigns must become national priorities rather than isolated initiatives.

Pakistan still has an opportunity to shape its demographic future. The decisions made today will determine whether the country’s growing population becomes a driver of economic progress or an obstacle to sustainable development. Population growth should not be viewed simply as a matter of numbers; it is ultimately about the quality of life that every Pakistani family deserves.

The future of Pakistan will not be determined by how many people it has, but by how well it invests in them. A healthy, educated, skilled, and empowered population is the country’s greatest resource. Achieving that vision requires informed choices, effective public policies, and a collective commitment to building a prosperous and sustainable future for generations to come.

Read: Breast Cancer: Early Detection Saves Lives

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Mahjabeen Channa is Social Development Professional based at Mithi, Tharparkar Sindh.

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• Ultra-fast growth, work-holism and daily life with no time to think about marriage or children cause decline in birthrate in Korea
• Media only encourages entertainment and consumption … Panelists from each country emphasize the role of media in overcoming low birth rates

Special Report by Lee Sang-hyun, Tax and Finance News

Seoul

A seminar on ‘Causes of Low Birth Rates in Asia and Countermeasures’ will be held on Thursday, November 7, 2024 in South Korean capital city of Seoul.

Low birth rates are a general trend across the globe, and experts have analyzed that there is no country on Earth where the falling Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has turned upward.

East Asia, where advanced Asian countries such as Korea, China, and Japan are located, is experiencing a significant decline in birth rates, and Southeast Asian countries also showed a birth rate emergency as the regional average total fertility rate in 2021 fell below the replacement fertility rate (2.1) that maintains the population (2.05).

Allen Ng, head of the Macroeconomic Monitoring Group at AMRO (ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Institute), said in a paper to be presented at an international seminar titled “Causes of Low Birth Rates in Asia and Countermeasures,” to be held at the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, “As the level of economic development increases, the TFR will continue to decline and, even in an optimistic scenario, it will not reach the replacement level of the fertility rate (2.1).”

This seminar, co-hosted by Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the Education Committee of the National Assembly and Rep. Oh Ki-hyung of the Planning and Finance Committee and organized by the Tax and Finance Newspaper, has been sponsored by the Presidential Committee on Local Government.

Based on AMRO data and research results, Group Director Allen Ng will present the birth rate, life expectancy, aging trends and outlook, and related policies of the ASEAN+3 member countries, which consist of Korea, Japan, China, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in a presentation titled “The Demographic Imperative.”

Read: Why South Korean women aren’t having babies

It is explained that a major shock can be prevented to some extent through social structure, religious beliefs, economic prosperity, urbanization and access to contraception, etc. that can affect the birth rate. The case of Nagi Village in Japan, which reversed the total fertility rate from 1.4 in 2005 to 2.7 in 2021 due to culture and norm that emphasizes extended families, will also be introduced.

At the seminar that day, experts from each Asian country will come out and seek solutions to the low birth rate based on social psychology, culture, religion, generational differences, and universal values such as family according to each country’s unique circumstances such as economic development phase, history, culture, politics, and legal system.

Professor Mikito Masuda (Economics) of Komazawa University said in a pre-interview with the seminar preparation team, “When people become wealthy, they reduce the number of children to improve the quality of their children, so the birth rate decreases.” This is in the same context as Group Leader Amro Allen Ng.

Professor Masuda suggested, “If young men and women are given more opportunities to live together, it will be easier to decide to get married, and more marriages will guarantee more children,” and “Local governments should transform themselves into attractive places for young women, and to do this, they should change gender role awareness and culture.” He also introduced an empirical study that proved that low rents and education costs in Miyazaki Prefecture, the second-highest in Japan, are the secrets to its relatively high birth rate. He also suggested a “village education” policy like Nagi Village, which Group Leader Allen Ng cited as an example.

Read: South Korea’s birth rate is so low, the president wants to create a ministry to tackle it

Professor Pham Thi Minh Thuy of the National Academy of Politics and Regional Politics in Ho Chi Minh City said in a previous interview that “Vietnam’s population exceeded 100 million in mid-April 2023, but Vietnam’s total fertility rate, which was 2.01 in 2022, fell to 1.95 in 2023, and the population growth rate will peak at 0 in 2069.”

Professor Pham explained that “many jobs have disappeared due to automation in Vietnam and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed,” and that “competition for decent jobs is fierce, and even if they manage to find a job, they have to spend a lot of money on retraining to maintain their job.” He added that other factors that discourage marriage include the “preference for sons,” gender role inequality between couples, and the burden of childcare for divorced women. He emphasized that “the way to solve the low birth rate problem beyond the law is to have an incentive mechanism that motivates people to work with peace of mind and allows them to donate their talents,” and that “sex education, community responsibility, racial protection, and cultural beliefs should be included.”

The case of Egypt, which has pursued a population reduction policy through family planning for decades unlike Asian countries, was also introduced. Ashraf Dali, Secretary General of the Congress of African Journalists (CAJ), said in a prior interview, “Since the introduction of female contraception in the 1980s, the total fertility rate in Egypt, which was 5.3, has fallen to 3.6 in 1995, 3.0 in 2008, and 2.9 recently, and is converging to the replacement fertility rate level of 2.1.”

The explanation that Egypt’s tradition of early marriage and the idea of ‘preferring sons’ gave rise to a culture of having many children was also notable. “In Islamic culture, controlling births is seen as an ‘act against God’s will,’” said General Secretary Ashraf, dismissing some prejudices that “Muslims have many children to expand their sect.”

Ashraf, who served as the president of the Asia Journalist Association (AJA) until the end of this year due to his experience working in Kuwait in West Asia, diagnosed that “Koreans’ living expenses and luxury goods also increased during the period when national income increased, and they had to work more to maintain a high level of consumption.”

Read: In South Korea, world’s lowest fertility rate plunges again in 2023

He added that “since they spend more time outside, they have less time to spend with their families, and if they are self-employed and have to work all day to earn more money, their daily lives with their families have been reduced even more.”

As a media expert, he criticized that “Korean newspapers and media platforms are very developed, but they are not a means of promoting family values, but are only focused on news and entertainment.”

In addition, he shared his experience interviewing Lee Hee-beom, chairman of Booyoung Group in Korea, and encouraged him by saying, “If companies, the government, and academia work together, Korea can also escape the low birth rate cliff.”

Psychologist Professor Emeritus Kwak Geum-joo of Seoul National University, who will chair the seminar, pointed out, “People think that they won’t be able to do what they want to do when they have children, but the difficult childcare can actually be an opportunity for tremendous self-development.” He pointed out that the environment where one must protect and care for children greatly enhances, multitasking, interpersonal skills, concentration, motivation, patience, and strategy planning abilities, etc.

Read: Pakistan’s population grows by 25 million in 5 years

He explained that the sense of responsibility for children and the constraints of time and space serve as tremendous motivation for the brain, resulting in a literally superhuman – human development process. There are cases where financial difficulties must be overcome, but he pointed out that the complaints of middle-aged people who indulged in spending money they earned when they were young and ended up in their 40s without assets, children (family), or outstanding job skills are definitely not to be ignored.

Professor Kwak said, “It may be more difficult to travel alone with a child to gain diverse experiences, but there are many cases where you learn things you didn’t know through the eyes of a child,” adding, “You have no choice but to make more detailed plans for your child’s safety and education, and leadership that creates motivational energy even when it’s difficult is also born in that desperate environment.”

In addition, Zhou Weibo, the representative of the China People’s Daily Online Korea branch, will introduce China’s low birth rate problem and solutions. In a pre-seminar interview with the seminar preparation team, Zhou Weibo said, “The fact that China’s overall population has been decreasing for two consecutive years is the result of various social factors such as fear of childbirth and economic burden,” and “The Chinese government is actively introducing various policies to address the low birth rate.”

Maria Dimentova, Seoul bureau chief of the Russian media outlet RIA Novosti, will introduce the case of Russia, where the policy of restricting religion (Russian Orthodox Church) during the Soviet Union and the breakdown of families during the economic hardships following the collapse of the Soviet Union have recently led to negative thoughts about the family among the Russian Millennium Z (MZ) generation.

Read – Pakistan: Economic, Social and Cultural Factors behind Overpopulation

Park So-hye, a visiting researcher at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University and an expert on North Korea, will introduce the total fertility rate in North Korea, the prospect of entering a super-aged society in 2050, and preferential policies for families with many children.

Lee Dong-gi, head of the Tax Training Institute of the Korean Tax Accountants Association (Certified Public Accountant in the United States), will analyze and present the fact that tax benefits for labor are less than those for the other two production factors by comparing Korea’s tax systems for land, labor, and capital. He will present that, although taxes are not the direct cause of the low birth rate, they are an important area that changes the future of a country’s economy and society in the mid- to long-term.

Read: Why are Japanese starved of happiness?

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Ashgabat  

The total population of Turkmenistan exceeded 7 million people by December 17, 2022.

This was announced at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, which was held on July 14, 2023 by President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, when summing up the results of the population census held in 2022. The population census was carried out according to international standards, the Turkmenistan.gov.tm portal reports.

According to the data received, as of December 17, 2022, the total population of the country was 7,057,841 people.

Mary velayat is home to 22.9% of the total population of the country.

About 50% of the population are men, more than 50% are women, 47.1% are residents of cities, and 52.9% live in villages.

According to the census, housing construction is being carried out at a high pace in all settlements of Turkmenistan. The number of residential buildings is 1005671, which is 12.4% higher compared to the 2012 census, residential buildings are 1344,268, which is 13.6% more, their total area is 165167523 sq m, which is 24.5% more.

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Courtesy: Central Asian Light (Posted on July 17, 2023)

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Amir Latif 

Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan

Pakistan’s population has crossed 230 million with an increase of over 25 million over the past five years, initial results of an ongoing census show.

The South Asian country’s overall population has reached 233.4 million with an increase of more than 25 million people, Naeem uz Zafar, Chief Statistician at the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, told Anadolu on Tuesday.

Zafar said the initial figures are based on 98% findings of the ongoing census, which is scheduled to culminate on April 20.

The country’s population was recorded as 207.68 million after the 2017 census.

The population has increased with an annual growth rate between 1.5% and 2%, which is likely to remain marginally low compared to slightly over 2% recorded in 2017.

“These numbers may vary because the work (census) is still in progress in several pockets across the country, particularly in major cities,” Zafar said.

According to him, some pockets in the commercial capital Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Multan and other cities have not been properly tabulated due to negligence of the census staff and non-cooperation of households.

Asked if the total population is likely to hit the 250 million figure, Zafar said: “I cannot say anything in this regard at this stage. Something decisive could be said only after these omissions (number of people still not counted in big cities) are covered.”

The northeastern Punjab province remains the most populous province with slightly over 115 million people, followed by southern Sindh with 52 million, northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 40 million and southwestern Balochistan 18.8 million.

Some 4.2 million and 1.65 million people have been so far counted in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and the northern Giglit-Baltistan region, respectively.

The federal capital Islamabad, meanwhile, has a population of 2.1 million.

Over 60% of the country’s population resides in rural areas.

Karachi remains the most populous city with 15.8 million people, which, according to the preliminary results, stands almost the same as recorded in 2017.

The metropolis’ total population is estimated to cross 17 million after the completion of the remaining census.

Lahore, the capital of Punjab, stands second with 13.4 million people compared to 11 million in 2017.

Pakistan is currently the fifth-largest in the world and the second-largest Muslim country after Indonesia in terms of population.

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Aamir Latif is a Karachi-based senior journalist. He represents the Anadolu, a Turkish news agency.

Courtesy: Anadolu Agency (Posted on 18.04.2023)  

The post Pakistan’s population grows by 25 million in 5 years first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Tom Arms

China is shrinking. India is growing. Sometime this year the sub-continental nation will usurp China as the most populous country on earth.

This and a number of other ineluctable facts will have a profound impact on China, India, Asia and the rest of the world.

Every economy needs workers to produce goods and services.  The more workers—especially relatively cheap ones—the faster a country’s GDP grows.

There are other factors at play. China’s pensioner population is rapidly growing. The proportion of retirees has expanded from 37.12 percent in 2010 to 44.14 percent in 2020 which means fewer workers and .greater social care costs. India, by comparison has an average age of 29.

Then there is covid. Xi Jinping’s decision to end his zero covid policy has let loose the deadly virus at the same time as hundreds of millions are travelling for Chinese New Year. To make matters worse most of the travelers are young people going from covid-infected cities to visit vulnerable elderly relatives in the less affected rural areas.

According to the University of Beijing, 900 million Chinese have been infected with the covid virus. The exact fatality figure is a government-protected secret. But it is known that healthcare services have been stretched beyond breaking point.

The pandemic has forced the closure of many Chinese production facilities and this year growth is expected to be only 3.2 percent. This is higher than the US, EU and the world average, but China starts from a lower base and the Chinese Communist Party’s hold on power is built on ever-improving living standards. The World Bank is predicting 6.9 percent economic growth in rival India.

Beijing’s mounting domestic problems—short and long-term—will force the Chinese Communist Party to focus its attention on internal issues. These means fewer foreign adventures and an effort to stabilize relations with the US, Europe, Japan and elsewhere. A recent visit by German Chancellor Olof Scholz was seen as a big win for the EU and other visits are planned by French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Sino-Australian relations are also rapidly thawing and the threat of full-throated Chinese support for Putin’s war in Ukraine is rapidly receding.

China’s “Wolf Warrior” diplomats who have been stoking the anti-Western fires have been sidelined. Their chief voice, Zhao Lijian, has been moved from spokesperson for the foreign ministry to the less visible job of Deputy Director of Boundaries and Ocean Affairs. At the same time the more pro-Western Qin Gan has been shifted from ambassador to the US to foreign minister.

Coinciding with all the above has been a move by Western governments to repatriate their production facilities in the name of economic security. Concern about Chinese domination of world manufacturing had been vexing Western governments for some years. But it was Russia’s stranglehold on European energy that set off a political tsunami against decades of globalization.

President Joe Biden has responded with a $430 billion package protectionist package to attract and develop green technologies and a $280 billion package to build up America’s computer chip industry.

The US moves will definitely hit the Chinese, but they have also drawn howls of protest from the EU, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Brexit Britain is expected to be especially hard-hit as the Brexiteers were counting on free trade to sustain the economy outside the EU. The outlook for the smaller free-trading economies will worsen as Brussels retaliates against American measures.

World consumers will also be affected. Moving production from China to the more expensive labor markets of Europe and the US will, according to World Bank economists, add at least five percent to the average consumer product.

Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 it has embedded itself in the international trading system. Last year it was responsible for 30 percent of the world’s manufacturing. Many Western companies and the world shipping industry are reliant on Chinese industry. A rapid shift away from Beijing as a result of demography, disease or politics will cause a major disturbance and require painful readjustment.

World Review

Ukraine is tank country. It is part of the flat and fertile North European plain which stretches from the Urals to the North Sea. That very same corridor has throughout history doubled as a military highway for invading armies head East or West.

This geopolitical fact is why Russia started the Ukraine War with a massive arsenal of 10,000 tanks and Ukraine had 2,500.  Since the fighting started nearly a year ago, the Russians have lost about 1,500 of their tanks. But relatively speaking to the initial size of their forces, the Ukrainians have fared worse with a loss of about a quarter of their tanks.

The Ukrainian losses on the tank battlefield, coupled with the importance of armour in the flat terrain, is the reason why Vlodomyr Zelensky is pleading with NATO for more armour.

The three countries that have tanks to spare are the US, Germany and Poland. The UK and France decided ten years ago that another North European war was unlikely and ran down their tank forces. France has only 200 main battle tanks and the UK about 220.

The US is well short of the Russians at 6,612 tanks, but if you add Germany’s 2,761 Leopard tanks and Poland’s fast-growing arsenal, the Ukrainians could match Russia tank for tank.

The problem is that the Germans are reluctant to be seen to escalate the conflict and the Biden Administration needs a strong European (which in this case means German) commitment to justify sending state of the art M1 Abrams tanks.

This leaves Poland, with some help from Finland and the Baltic states, to fill the yawning gap in Ukrainian armoured battalions. In the meantime, Ukraine is preparing for Russia’s inevitable tank-led spring offensive.

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Jacinda Adern, has voluntarily, out of the blue, resigned. The prime minister of tiny New Zealand is one of the most respected international figures. She successfully introduced strict gun laws after the Christchurch mosque shooting left 51 dead; led her Labor Party to an historic landslide victory and organized one of the few successful containments of the covid virus. But Ms. Adern has decided her work is done and is stepping down.

Now compare the New Zealand leader to other Western politicians who are prepared to lie, cheat and twist the law to cling to power. Britain’s Boris Johnson and America’s Donald Trump immediately spring to mind. Trump with his unfounded claim that he won the 2020 presidential election and Boris with who claimed ignorance of Downing Street parties during the covid lockdown. Ms. Adern led by example when she was in office and she is doing same with her departure and is being praised for doing so. Politicians who are concerned about their legacies should take note.

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The moral high ground is where every politician wants to be. Donald Trump has never managed more than a foot or two up the mountain and his failure to climb higher was a factor in his 2020 electoral defeat at the hands of “relatively honest” Joe Biden. Now, Biden has suffered a major downhill slide: classified documents have been found where they should not be—in his office and even his garage.  Their discovery has inevitably been compared to the discovery of classified material in Trump’s Mar-a-lago home and led to another special counsel investigation of another president.

However, document-gate does not appear to have adversely impacted on Biden’s popularity. His approval ratings have actually gone up this month from 38 to 44 percent.  Pundits believe that the voters are inured to moral shortcomings but have been impressed that the US is enjoying record unemployment, lower inflation and impressed by the Democrats performance in the mid-term elections.

Trump also appears to have benefitted from the latest round of document-gate. Despite his candidates’ poor showing in the mid-terms, the former president is 17 points head of main challenger Ron de Santis in a poll of Republican voters. They appear to have indulged in a bout of whataboutery in regards to the Mar-a-lago documents to reaffirm their support for Trump. Thus, at the moment, 2024 looks like a re-run of the Biden-Trump race.

If you regularly pay the interest (and perhaps a bit of the principal) on your loans then you can be more or less guaranteed a Triple A credit rating. In fact, the more you borrow the better. The bank are not so concerned about how much you owe as your ability to pay the interest on the loans. After all, that is how they make their money.

However, should you default on a monthly payment then your financial world will come crashing down.

The same rules apply to governments. They can borrow as much as they want as long as they keep up regular payments. If they default then their economy simply collapses and the bigger the national economy the bigger the impact on the world economy.

You cannot get bigger than the American economy. The US is 24.1 percent of global GDP and the US government debt is $31.4 trillion out of the $226 trillion owed by all the world’s governments. If the US government defaulted on its debt payments the results would be catastrophic. Not only would hundreds of millions individuals be affected but the banking industry would collapse and America’s chief creditor nations—Japan, China, Britain, Ireland and Luxembourg—would be in deep trouble.

As in most countries, debt and public spending are major political issues. Generally speaking the Republicans are against it and the Democrats are for it. But because it is such a big issue, the US has a congressional-imposed debt ceiling. The government is by law restricted—at the moment –to a maximum debt of $31.4 billion. To exceed that a mount the government needs the approval of the House of Representatives.

This week the Biden Administration reached the debt ceiling. Following the mid-term elections the House of Representatives is controlled by the fiscally-conservative Republicans who are in turn increasingly dominated by their more extreme right-wing Freedom Caucus.

President Biden has until about June to raise the debt ceiling and prevent a default. It will be an interesting—perhaps even nail-biting– winter and spring in Washington.

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Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is heading towards a dangerous head-on collision with his country’s Supreme Court. He is unhappy with some of the court’s rulings, so he plans to change the structure of the court to give the government more control over bench appointments. This has galvanized the usually quiescent opposition who have taken to the streets in the tens of thousands to protest.

The latest court versus Bibi clash concerns the cabinet appointment of ultra-orthodox Aryhei Dei, Leader of the Shas Party, to Netanyahu’s. Dei’s appointment has been blocked by the Supreme Court because of the far-right politician’s conviction for tax fraud. The Shas Party has threatened to pull out of Israel’s shaky coalition if Netanyahu refuses to defy the court. But if Netanyahu caves in to political demands then he will be in contempt of court and there is no appeal to a Supreme Court decision.

So, Netanyahu is proposing to change the structure of the court panel which selects its members. At the moment there are nine justices. Netanyahu wants 11. The selection panel is comprised of judges, lawyers and politicians with a non-political bias. Netanyahu’s proposed changes would give the selection panel a political-bias. In addition, a 7-2 vote is currently needed to approve a judge’s appointment. Netanyahu wants a simple majority.

An independent judiciary has a crucial and—it would seem at times—almost counter-intuitive role in democracies. They are, in most democracies, unelected and outside the political fray. A crucial part of their role is to protect the sanctity of elections and democratic values and structures. They do this by being swayed not by the changing whims of the electorate, but by the immutable foundations of history and legal precedent.

They can—and have—acted as guardians against the tyranny of the majority. Which is why at the last count 80,000 Israelis of every political stripe from the center to the extreme left took to the streets to side with the Supreme Court against Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and the author of “America Made in Britain.”

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By Mushtaq Mirani

Demographic engineering definitions, concepts and explanations

Demographic engineering is defined as a deliberate effort to shift the ethnic balance of an area, especially with a political motivation measures for create ethnically homogeneous populations. In specific explanation demographic engineering term deals with population transfers, it included forced migrations.  The most practiced forms of demographic engineering are a) population transfer, b) genocide, c) ethnic cleansing, d) inducement migration and e) policies for demographic engineering. Moreover, to some extend demographic engineering concept covers falsification of census results, redrawing borders, changing in birth rates of particular population groups, with voluntary or coerced emigration. However, genocide is an extreme form of demographic engineering.

It is pertinent to explain these demographic engineering forms in detail. The demographic engineering in specific geographic areas creates winners, losers, conditions governance, employment and social services and controls strategic locations. It also re-shapes human settlement in particular geographical pockets. However, the ‘genocide’ term unpacks itself as an intentional action to destroy people.  Likewise, ‘ethnic cleansing’ deals with the expulsion, imprisonment, or killing of an ethnic minority with a purpose to achieve ethnic homogeneity. Similarly, ‘population transfer’ is one of the forms of the population shift.  However, it is also called resettlement, where a large group of people moves from one region to another. In most of the cases, the forced migration imposed by state policy or authority. Another form is called, ‘inducement migration’ it is a particular situation that operates through ‘pull’ and ‘push’ factors.  The demographic engineering applies a certain set of policies. The policies are population measurement (census politicization), assimilation, boundary changes, economic pressure (inducement), ethnic dilution, ethnic consolidation and the policies are used by the states or the governments to drive away undesirable ethnic population and consolidate the desired population.

Resolution of 1940 and Nature of Pakistan’s Federation 

In present times, demographic engineering takes place through various means. A lead one is the constitutional provisions. However, in the case of Sindh prior to have critical is important to dissect the Pakistan resolution, 1940. Prior to become an administrative part of the British Empire Sindh was an independent state till 1843.

Resolution of 1940

The political leadership of 1930s and onwards strived to secure the rights of people. One could list lot example of peoples’ movements, but separation of Sindh from the Bombay Presidency was one the lead movements that set new standards in Sindh’s politics. Later on, Sindh Muslim League’s popularity also should be considered in that direction. Resultantly, a majority of Sindhis considered ‘1940’s Lahore Resolution’ as a salvation, because it declare:

‘No constitutional plan would be workable or acceptable to the Muslims unless geographical contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary. That the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign”.

It further reads:

“That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in the units and in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights of the minorities, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority”.

Types of Federation and Pakistan

The federation is defined that ‘the federation is formed when two or more than two nation entities are combined for larger gains and larger political unit is formed.  Generally, there are three types of processes or intentions of the formation of the federation. These are: ‘coming together’, ‘holding together’, and ‘putting together’. The USA is an example of ‘coming together’ type of the federation. Likewise, the Germany represents ‘holding together’ model. In this way, Pakistan and Nigeria are examples of ‘putting together’. It is called so, because the political model was imposed on the constituent units.

Population Transfer, intention, design and ways – case of Karachi city

Sindh became part of the newly formed federation called as ‘putting together. But the federal government immediately implemented its ‘population transfer policy’. It applied multiple steps, one of them was to declare Karachi as a newly formed state’s capital.  The move constrained relation in between the central government and Sindh Government. Professor Aisha Jalal adds:

‘the center’s advocacy of the Urdu-speaking migrants’ right to space……. was perceived as a deep-seated conspiracy to displace Sindhis from a position of dominance in their own province”.

The politically motivated move adversely affected the population pattern of Sindh, especially of Karachi city. The below mentioned shows the population pattern, after the federal government’s decision of making Karachi city as the capital of Pakistan. The table has displayed figures of two census reports – 1941 and 1951.

Onward, relations between the central government and Sindh Government were strained. Immediately, settlement of the refugees in Karachi reached its maximum level. Soon refugees attacked Sindhi Hindus who constituted 30% of the Sindh’s population, resided in urban area, afterwards they migrated to India.  Sindh declared that it would only accept 150,000 refugees in Sindh.  Finally, the Sindh assembly made unanimous resolution to oppose this plan on 10th February 1948. Subsequent development occurred in which premier of Sindh Ayub Khuhro was dismissed. The migration continued and it changed the population pattern in urban-Sindh, particularly of Karachi city. The unnatural population transfer triggered two processes sharp rise in Sindh’s total population, and dramatic shift in Karachi’s population. The census data of 1941 and 1951 census shows that population of Karachi reached 10,055,000. However, in the previous census it was merely 436,000.  The population of Karachi city and reset of Sindh is mentioned in the blow table.

The simple statistics revealed that Karachi’s share in total population in 1931 was 6.4%, and the rest of Sindh’s share was 93.6%. But after roughly in 90 years, the census of 2017 stated that Karachi has added 31.1% and the rest of Sindh’s contribution in total population of Sindh was 68.9%. Another calculation shows that over the period (1931-2017) population of the Karachi city has jumped 24.7%. Therefore, Sindhi’s feared that after some years Karachi’s population might take over the rest of Sindh population. It happens so then Sindh would be majority province of migration population.

The Central Government’s delicate designs

Nowadays, population transfer is neither local issue nor naïve attempt. It is global phenomena, and serious academic writings quote such moves around the globe. Milica Zarkovic Bookman calls it ‘a global war of numbers’.  She elaborates that ‘[war of numbers] increase the economic and political power of an ethnic group relative to other group, and the method by which is achieved entails the increase in size of the one population relative to others.’  The majority group, in case of Pakistan’s central government applied ‘subtle components’ for realization of the population shift mechanism. The global literature reveals that such ‘mechanism’ might involve resettlement policies, allocation of lands, internal-migration polices, and even religious conversion.   In the case of Sindh, some of subtle ways were: legislation, constitutional frames. One the relevant example is of the BJP, it attempted convert the Muslim majority in Indian-Occupied Kashmir into minority through demographic engineering. It modified article 370 and article 35A of the Indian Constitution.  In addition to that the BJP government has initiated lot mega projects that are attracting investors, and started migration. The continued Indian Government’s demographic engineering was notices by the Pakistan Government. Its Foreign Minister’s (Shah Mehmood Qureshi) statement appeared in the media, and called the demographic change in Kashmir as genocide.

In this regard, imposition of one-unit scheme in 1955 is an ideal example.  First, it provided legal covered to refugee claims (building and asset vacated by migrated Hindus), and opened windows people of other provinces to get Kotri barrage land and Gudu barrage land. On parallel move, almost all successive governments invested in urban pockets of Sindh. Resultantly, people from other areas migrated to Sindh, especially in its urban center. In this case, Karachi city, involuntarily hosted more people. The consecutive censuses reveal that along with Karachi city, the population of Sindh also unnatural way increased added. However, migration of Sindhi Hindus was also lead contributor factor.

Resultantly, Sindh’s population was affected. In 1941 Sindhis population was 86% and in 2017 it was reduced to 61%.  Apart from political engineering, there are other mechanisms that initiate migration to Sindh are ‘push/pull factors’.  However, in the case of Sindh ‘pull factors’ compel the people from other areas to migrate, and settle in Sindh. However, in the case of Sindh, an internal migration was caused due to various reasons. However, one of them was rapid industrialization in Pakistan, including in Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities of Sindh.

The investment created huge demand of employment opportunities, and it also aligned with population shift idea of the federal government. Altaf Gohar has quoted Choudhry Muhammad on ‘outsiders’ issue in Sindh, which also endorses the policy of the federal government. It reads:

“His (Choudry Muhammad Ali) government in the 1950s had foreseen the problem and had planned the induction of Mohajirs into Karachi and other major towns of Sindh to forestall Sindhi nationalism’.

Therefore, migrants from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were encouraged and facilitated. Later on disposal of Kotri barrage and Gudu barrage land to non-Sindhis attracted migration to Sindh.  In Sindh mostly inducement and push factors accelerate migration to Sindh like job opportunities, moderate climate support of host communities and facilitation of federal and Sindh government to migration like regulation of (Katchi Aabadi). In case this induced policy is mingled with other factors such as economic factors, social factors, health services it accelerates the migration, and it paves the way for climate threat and food insecurity.

On other hand, population in other provinces has remained natural. The analysis of 2017 census shows that except to Sindh other provinces have stable demographic pattern. In case of Punjab, Punjabi were 69.67% and Siraiki’s were 20.68%. Likewsie, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 76.86% were Pushto speaking and Hindko’s were 11.48%. Similarly, in Baluchistan, Baloach were 35.34%, Pushton were 35.34% and Brahvi were 17.12%. However, in Sindh which had almost 90% Sindhi speaking people in 1941, now there it has reduced to 62% in the census of 1917.

Table 4: Ethnic distribution in Pakistan, 2017 census 

It is alarming that in all federation units only Sindh’s demography has been drastically changed. The recently published literature literate has coined a new term for the population transfer, which is called ‘Ethnic Dilution’. In that process, population of a particular ethnic group is shifter in order to dilute the specific population. In such shifting skills categories or income groups are not considered, but ethnicity is considered with a goal of diminishing the political and cultural strength of the targeted group.  It has huge impact on politics, economy, natural resource, employment, poverty and social psychology. On the other hand, the migrant population has sent its representative in Sindh assembly and National assembly. A deluge of non-local population in Sindh and Baluchistan has raised the anxieties of the native population; the data of 2017 census explain the reason. Sindhi speaking were approximately 60% in their respective province.  On the other hand, Sindh based political parties have shown resentment over the population shift, for example Sindh United Party has stated in its election manifesto, 2018  that ‘it will protect Sindh’s demography’.

Conclusion

The demographic engineering, induced migration and other forms of population transfer to Sindh is well-thought mechanism. It was one of the regular features of the federal government and the provincial government. The apparent reasons of the population shift are exclusion dilution of Sindhis in their own province increase the numerical number of the desirable ethnic group, occupation of strategic lands, water and other security needs controlling strategic cities, towns and security location. Therefore, it seems that the state’s demographic engineering policy intends to achieve the objective of one nation one territory. If it so, then it is against the spirit of the Pakistan Resolution, 1940. And consequently, Sindh would lose its old identity, and it would be converted into minority, strategic locations such coastal belt and other resources would be taken away from it. In the continuity of such policy more non-Sindhis members would be inducted into Sindh assembly, national assembly and senate. Therefore, Sindh wouldn’t be in position to strive for its right of self-determination. Currently there are several projects initiated by the Pakistan Government, Sindh Government and private foundation (Bahria Town, Defence Housing Authority, (DHA), China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) etc.) might influx people from other provinces and even from Afghanistan. Most of them will migrate to Karachi, Jamshoro, Hyderabad and Thatta district. Therefore, immediate remedy needed to hold article 15 article and article 23for considerable time. It is being demanded because, the Article 15 states:

‘Freedom of movement, etc. Every citizen shall have the right to remain in, and, subject to any reasonable restriction imposed by law in the public interest, enter and move freely throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle in any part thereof’.

Likewise Article 23 supports the previous article, while its states:

‘Provision as to property. Every citizen shall have the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property in any part of Pakistan, subject to the Constitution and any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the public interest.

On the other hand, it is obligation of the federation government to protect interest of the federating units. It must be realized that the provincial government couldn’t play any role because the constitution limits role. Presently, lot of Sindh based political parties raised their voice against this population shift.

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About the Author

Mushtaq Mirani is a retired Associate Professor. He worked in Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro. He could be accessed at mirani55@gmail.com

(The author has presented this paper at 3-day International Conference on ‘Democratic Federalism’, organized by Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur on December 15-17, 2021)

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Figure does not include Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents and foreigners

Ethnic minority proportion in China’s population has registered a rise.

Beijing: China’s population on the mainland reached 1.41178 billion, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday, citing data from the seventh national population census.

The figure does not include Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents and foreigners who live in the mainland’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, according to the NBS.

The State Council Information Office held a news conference on the outcome of the seventh national population census on Tuesday. Here are the highlights.

Chinese mainland registers a population of 1.41 billion, with an annual growth rate of 0.53 percent in the past decade, down from 0.57 percent recorded from 2000 to 2010, report says.

Chinese aged 60 and above reached 264.02 million, or 18.70 percent of population, up 5.44 percentage points from 2010.

A total of 845,697 foreigners are living on the Chinese mainland, compared with 593,832 a decade ago.

Sex ratio heading to a more balanced direction, report said adding that the number of male in China has reached 723.34 million, accounting for 51.24 of the whole population, while the female reached 688.44 million, or 48.76 percent.

The male to female ratio stands at 105.07, which is a slight drop compared with that in 2010.

The sex ratio at birth is 111.3, falling 6.8 from that in the last census.

Ethnic minority proportion in China’s population has also registered a rise.

The proportion of ethnic minority groups in China’s mainland population has risen to 8.89 percent, according to data from the latest national census conducted in 2020.

The proportion was up 0.4 percentage points from 2010, when China conducted its previous census, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The population of ethnic minority groups increased 10.26 percent to 125.47 million from 2010, while that of Han Chinese grew 4.93 percent to 1.28631 billion, accounting for 91.11 percent of the total population, the NBS data showed.

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Courtesy: People‘s Daily

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