Pakistan debates inflation, unemployment, failing schools, and collapsing hospitals almost every day. Yet the one issue quietly sitting beneath all these problems rarely enters our national conversation: our rapidly growing, uncontrolled population. It is the single most powerful force dragging millions of Pakistanis deeper into poverty; however, it is still the issue we whisper about, treat as taboo, or pretend does not exist.

With over 250 million people and one of the highest fertility rates in the region, we add millions of new citizens every year without the economic or social capacity to support them. The most painful consequences are not in policy documents or development graphs; they are inside the homes of those who can least afford them. Across countless low-income households, parents are trapped in a cycle of survival. They are raising four, five, or even seven children on incomes that barely support two. Mothers who are anaemic and exhausted are forced to have more children. Fathers juggling multiple jobs feel the weight of responsibility crushing them. These families face malnutrition, stunting, school drop-outs, child labour, and deepening poverty that passes from one........

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