Three recent benchmark initiatives in Islamabad, the constitutional amendment, the Dawn Population Summit, and the PBS DataFest 2025, signal together a turning point for Pakistan’s population agenda. Together, they lay bare a simple but urgent truth that policy, governance, and development must begin with the rights and needs of the people. Population management is, at its core, a political question. These national conversations offer a rare moment to rewrite the narrative and align political reform, population planning, and data-driven decision-making around one unifying principle that puts people first.

Reform is not merely the shuffling of power or the redesign of institutions. It is the pursuit of outcomes that genuinely improve lives. When governance works, a woman can give birth safely, young men and women can access real opportunities, and families can rely on quality essential services. When governance falters, the consequences are swift where budgets stall, cases of gender-based violence go unreported, and policies overlook the lived realities of women and adolescent girls. The stakes could not be clearer.

At UNFPA, we define success in people-centred terms: ensuring that every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Achieving this vision depends on institutions that plan, coordinate, and deliver effectively, and that are accountable to the citizens they serve.

The........

© Daily Times