The programme under way at the PMA House on Thursday.—White Star KARACHI: “It is sad that we don’t want to openly discuss family planning. But the growing population is the cause of poverty, the cause of child labour, the rising mother mortality rate and what not,” said Dr Jaipal Chhabria of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) during a World Population Day seminar organised by RAHNUMA-Family Planning Association of Pakistan (Sindh) in collaboration with the PMA Karachi (HRC) at the PMA House here on Thursday. Syed Abdul Qayyum of RAHNUMA said that the population of Pakistan is at the moment 225 million. It was 32m in 1947 and by 1971, it had more than doubled to 65m. In 1998, it was 132m and by 2017, it was 208m. “If we carry on like this, it will be 260m by 2030. Should we let it grow at this rate? This is after all the same size country with the same resources. What about food security, what about educating the population?” he said.