*ISLAMABAD – Maulana Tariq Jameel has given his piece of word on risingpopulation in Pakistan.*
“Just a year after marriage if there’s no sign of a child, the [girl’s]mother-in-law starts saying that they aren’t able to conceive,” said Jamil.He was speaking at a symposium organized by the federal government inIslamabad on Wednesday. “This is a grave injustice.”
Jameel is one of Pakistan’s more popular religious scholars and preachers.He has 3m followers on YouTube and 1.3m on Facebook.
He said that this is why people in rural areas mostly have children. “Theman thinks, if he doesn’t have a child, his friends will start saying thathe isn’t capable.”
Read Top Stories
It is this peer pressure that is forcing couples into having children. Thiskind of pressure is also forcing men to consult ‘quacks’ who promise toimprove their fertility. “If we just went by the wall chalkings across thecountry, we would be led to believe that [infertility] is the only problemin Pakistan,” he quipped. He was referring to the graffiti that quacks haveput up as a marketing tactic.
The census puts Pakistan’s population at 207 million, making it the sixthmost populous country in the world.
