Population boom weighs down Pakistan

Demographic reality raises questions about religion, culture and where the two intersect in South Asian nation.

Brick kiln Pakistan

With four million births per year, Pakistan is poised to become the world’s fourth most populous nation in just under 40 years.

With the exploding population come questions about religion, culture and where the two intersect. Conservative religious leaders equate “family planning” with murder, but maternal-health activists say the claims of religious conservatives serve a cultural and political goal.

Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab reports from Lahore on whether the personal is becoming politicised in a nation where 70 per cent of women do not use any form of birth control.

Source: Al Jazeera