Even though there is considerable demand for family planning in Pakistan, the adoption of family planning has been hampered by government neglect, lack of services and misconceptions. Demographics play a large role in Pakistan's development and security since the change from military rule to civilian leadership. Challenges to Pakistani's well-being, opportunities for education and employment, and access to health care are escalated due to the country's continuously-growing population. It was estimated in 2005 that Pakistan's population totaled 151 million; a number which grows 1.9 percent annually, equaling a 2.9 million population growth per year."Pakistan: Debating Islam and family planning." IRIN. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 06 Apr 2011. http://irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=28617 Though Pakistan's fertility rates still exceed those of neighboring South Asian countries with a total fertility rate at 4.1 (3.3 children in urban settings and 4.5 children in rural areas) and contraception use is lower than 35 percent, approximately one-fourth of Pakistani women wish to either delay the birth of their next child or end childbearing altogether.
According to Dr. Ansar Ali Khan, an advisor of reproductive health to the United Nations Population Fund in Pakistan, "A combination of factors like non-availability of services, baseless traditional beliefs and misconception play a big role." In addition, Ali Khan stated that "a fairly large number of the population believes the use of artificial contraceptives for family planning is against nature and also against Islam." Unlike family planning in Iran, a neighboring Islamic republic, Pakistan's family planning program has been touted to have failed in recent years due to neglect and constant policy changes as a result of political upheaval. While 96 percent of married women were reported to know about at least one method of contraception, only half of them had ever used it.
History In 1950, Pakistan's population reached 37 million people, making it the world's 13th most populous country. Though Pakistan was one of the first Asian countries to begin a family planning program with some help from international donors, fertility has declined slower than in neighboring countries. In 2007, Pakistan had increased in world population ranking to 6th, with over 164 million people and the United Nations (UN) has projected that in 2050 it will move into 5th place with around 292 million people.
Beginnings The Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP), now called "Rahnuma", was founded in Lahore by Saeeda Waheed in 1953. Waheed, a member of the All Pakistan Women's Association, began advocating for birth control when her maid died from an attempt to abort her own pregnancy.Khan, Ayesha. "Policy-making in Pakistan's population programme." Health and Policy Planning. Volume 11, Number 1, 30-51. Oxford, 1996. The FPAP was unsuccessful in changing family planning policies until President and military leader Ayub Khan took interest in the problem of overpopulation in the late 1950s. Khan spoke at the FPAP's first national seminar in 1959, speaking on the 'menace over overpopulation'. Soon after the seminar, the National Board of Family Planning was established as a policy-advising body for the federal government.
Pakistani journalist/researcher Ayesha Khan has suggested various reasons for Ayub Khan's position on population control. Firstly, religion played a minor role in his government, a position that would change with Pakistan's next leader. Secondly, development ideology during Khan's time of power warned of the economic risks of high population growth rates. Thirdly, it had political utility for a military leader with no popular mandate to his leadership and in need of a development strategy. Lastly, support from international donors.
Family planning policy in the 1960s Pakistan's first Family Planning Scheme was a part of the country's Third Five Year Plan (1965–1970). This scheme became the template for all subsequent family planning strategies. The scheme's goal was to have a vast impact in the shortest time possible, with a reduction of the birth rate from 50 to 40 per 1000 by 1970. At the onset of the program, condoms were the most available method of contraception, but by 1966 the Intrauterine Device (IUD) had replaced it has the "corner-stone" of the Scheme. It was said to be "safe, cheap, reversible," and it required "little user action."
Family planning amid political turmoil In 1969, Ayub Khan was overthrown by the joint action of Islamist parties and the leftist Pakistan People's Party. His successor Yahya Khan did little more than watch as a civil war ripped apart East and West Pakistan in 1971. Wajihuddin Ahmed, the Family Planning Commissioner during Yahya Khan's rule, focused on reducing pregnancies in women "rather than meeting contraceptive targets alone" and introducing the pill to Pakistani women.
In 1971, while the country was split apart and international assistance halted due to army atrocities in Bangladesh, the Pakistan Peoples Party took power of the Pakistani government. Its leader, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, needed to gain legitimacy and popularity by taking an anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-Ayub Khan-stance. However, Bhutto found that he could not fund many of his socialist promises, and so allowed economic assistance from USAID. Over the 15-year span of 1964-1979, USAID "spent over $30 million on Pakistan's population programme; during 1965–75 US AID provided 40% of total programme inputs." However, due to extreme and unrealistic goals, the USAID program was highly ineffective.
In 1977 Bhutto's Chief of Army Staff, General Zia ul-Haq, deposed the leader and declared martial law. Zia differed from his predecessors in that he "made the religious-right-wing his political ideology." He had used the religious lobbies and conservative middle-classes as support for his take-over. In a move looking to counter Bhutto's government and as a gesture to his religious constituency, Zia froze the existing family planning program and banned publicity for family planning activities. Zia enforced strict laws against adultery (punishable by death), rape, intoxication, and theft. USAID funding was suspended, and Pakistan became alienated "from the Western powers that Ayub Khan had so carefully cultivated."
Near the end of Zia's era of power, family planning and population control became tied to the Ministry of Health (Pakistan). Unfortunately, the program has remained fairly unchanged over the past 35 years due to implementation problems involving over-centralization, lack of coordination, and structural flaws.
Rural and Urban Healthcare Disparities That Contribute to Pakistan's High Child Mortality Rate One of Pakistan's largest problems is its rapidly expanding population and their limited access to necessary essentials such as readily available healthcare, doctor's, and basic sexual education. Although the nation has recently been making active efforts to adhere to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals that aims to reduce global infant mortality by two-thirds, their efforts have fallen short as a large population of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan resides in rural areas where the nation's efforts have rarely been seen. The accompanying concerns of this crisis have resulted in extremely high neonatal, infant and child mortality rates. According to the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, Pakistan's rates of child mortality (neonatal mortality rate: 44.2; infant mortality rate: 61.2; child under 5 mortality rate: 74.9) nearly double the worldwide average (neonatal mortality rate: 18; infant mortality rate: 29.4; child under 5 mortality rate: 39.1) set by UNICEF Global.
Religious influences
Muslim populations are incredibly diverse, varying by race, language, and degree of religious conservatism.Roudi-Fahimi, Farzeaneh. "Islam and Family Planning." Population Reference Bureau. 2004. Some populations are part of countries run by Islamic law, while others live under secular governments. In Pakistan, extremely conservative Islamic beliefs predominate in many parts of the country, in which purdah restricts women to their homes unless chaperoned by a male relative. Additionally, levels of schooling are very low in Pakistan, allowing men to have more power in decision-making.
When Ayub Khan resigned in 1969, religious demonstrators attempted to discredit the leader morally using the slogan "Family planning, for those who want free sex!" This ideology is still present in Pakistan, as the organized religious party opposes family planning because it is un-Islamic. Though Pakistani couples commonly cite religious reasons for avoiding birth control, there is not one definitive agreement about family planning and contraception in Islam. In Pakistan, many local religious figures are supportive of family planning and have begun discussions in their communities in order to promote the health of women and children.
Although many public health specialists feel that religion plays a major role in resistance to the use of FP in Pakistan, the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey of 2006-7 showed that religious reasons accounted for only 9% of FP non-use. In fact, many NGOs have implemented interventions where they have worked with local or national clergy. Islamabad based think tank Research and Development Solutions reports that there is no quantitative evidence that any of these interventions have resulted in an increase in CPR in these communities.
Current contraceptive use Historically, political strife and cultural restrictions on women constraining their empowerment have hampered implementation of family planning strategies throughout the country. Most women who say they do not want any more children or would like to wait a period of time before their next pregnancy do not have the contraceptive resources available to them in order to do so. One-fourth of married women are estimated to have an unmet need. In the 1990s, women increasingly reported to wanting fewer children, and 24 percent of recent births were reported to be unwanted or mistimed. The rate of unwanted pregnancies is higher for women living in poor or rural environments; this is especially important since two-thirds of women live in rural areas. While only 22 percent of pregnant married women report being currently using a modern method of birth control and 8 percent reported to be using a traditional method, lack of widespread contraceptive use could be due to the lack breadth of the current family planning program. The most commonly reported reasons for married women electing not to use family planning methods include the belief that fertility should be determined by God (28 percent); opposition to use by the woman, her husband, others or a perceived religious prohibition (23 percent); infertility (15 percent); and concerns about health, side effects or the cost of family planning (12 percent).