Charter of the Economy Therefore, there is irrefutable evidence that fast population growth is putting severe pressure on natural resources, services, and jobs. Keeping pace will require big increases in public and private investment, which have not been forthcoming. 31.3. Population Planning and Control The rate of population growth varies among the different regions of Pakistan is shown in Table 31.3. the estimates do not adjust for any under-enumeration during a Census. The two less developed provinces have shown faster population growth between 1998 and 2017. In the case of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, it is partly due to the large influx of refugees from Afghanistan. The biggest decline in the population growth rate is observed in Punjab, followed by Sindh. It is likely that a larger proportion of married couples are attempting voluntarily to achieve same family size control, given relatively higher incomes and education. Table 31.3: Population Growth Rate in Different Regions of Pakistan(In the last two Inter­Census Periods) Annual Growth Rate(%) 1981 to 1998 1998 to 2017 Punjab 2.60 2.11 Sindh 2.76 2.38 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 2.78 2.85 Balochistan 2.40 3.32 FATA 2.21 2.38 Islamabad Capital Territory 5.12 4.81 Pakistan 2.66 2.37 Public sector interventions for population control are currently very limited as indicated by expenditure on population planning in Table 31.4. the expenditures are very small and aggregate to only 0.5 percent of the total combined expenditure of the four Provincial Governments. Table 31.4: Expenditure on Population Planning, 2018-19 Provincial Governments Expenditure on Population Planning Current Development Total on Population Planning Punjab 4.3 1.2 5.5 Sindh 3.9 0.3 4.2 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1.2- 1.2 Balochistan 0.8 2.6 3.4 TOTAL 10.2 4.1 14.3­Source: MOF (Rs in Billion) Percentage of Total Expenditure 0.4 0.5 0.2 1.4 0.5 326