POPULATION GROWTH IN PAKISTAN: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC POLICIES

Abstract

South Asia is the most populous region having three top ten largest population holding countries of world. Pakistan is one of them, having highest population growth rate in the region. However, the rate of growth and control of population in Pakistan has been behaving differently in comparison to other South Asian countries that instigate world’s attention on why it is so, despite the continuous funding and implementation of population policies. Current study is intended to investigate the reasons behind its high growth rate in South Asia by exploring the policy shift and patterns of implementation in Pakistan during the last seven decades. This study investigates Pakistan’s national five-year plans for the sections that particularly focus on population planning, and medium-term development plans, perspective plans and national & provincial population policies since 1950s to 2017. Qualitative content analysis technique was used to dig out the issue.Thoughfertility rate is continuously declining, but not up to the expectations of national and international planners. The study found that no serious efforts were made at the beginning when five-year plans began to be implemented in Pakistan. At the same time, Pakistan was unsuccessful to introduce specific population policies during the second half of the 20th Key Words: Population Growth, Population Increase, Content Analysis, Plans and Policies, Pakistan. century. The study concludes that non-Implementation of strategies and lack of monitoring and evaluation of the programs were main reasons behind unsuccessful population programs.