Census officials to brief MPAs next week

Karachi

Officials of the national census commissioner’s office will be summoned to the provincial assembly next week for an in-camera briefing on the measures they have taken for the upcoming sixth population census, speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani told the House on Friday.

The speaker gave this ruling on a point of order raised by parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.

The minister said there had not been a population census in Pakistan for the last 18 years. He added that the housing census conducted during the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government’s tenure had been rejected.

“Today, there is more confusion prevailing than in the past as the federal government has not yet clarified as to how it will conduct the population and housing census.”

 The minister noted that on one occasion, the federal finance minister had said the sky would not fall if the census was postponed, then he had remarked that the house census would be completed in three days, and later he had given a statement that the army would provide 100,000 personnel instead of 400,000 for conducting the population census. “Rallies are being staged in Sindh because of the ambiguity over the census. We want the population census to be held as it will cause to increase our representation,” said Khuhro.

He added that the office of the census commissioner’s office should be summoned to the assembly to briefing the lawmakers about what the federal government intends to do about the census.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan, the leader of the opposition in the House, noted that the chief minister had convened an all-parties conference on the issue of the population census. “It would be better to wait for the recommendations of the all-parties conference before holding talks with federal government on the issue,” he added.

Hassan said in the year 2011, the PPP-led government had conducted a housing census but had itself rejected it. Now again, he added, there were reservations that the population and housing census might be postponed for an indefinite period.

 

‘Transparent census needed’

Before the start of the assembly’s proceedings, Hassan told reporters that the population census should be held in a transparent manner without government interference and influence.

He added that an independent commission should be formed for monitoring the census.

The opposition leader said the chief minister should convene all-parties conferences on the water shortage in Karachi, local governments’ powers, and the drought in Tharparkar, similar to the one being held to discuss the census issue.

 

Absent legislators

The lawmakers present in the House expressed serious concern over many of their fellow MPAs remaining completely absent from the House or turning up late.

They proposed that latecomers should be penalised by deducting their daily allowance and also marked absent. The speaker said lawmakers who did not attend the proceedings were of no use and he would be compelled to prorogue the session in case the MPAs showed no interest in them.

Khuhro said several options had been exercised for ensuring the attendance of lawmakers but to no avail.

Samar Ali Khan, a PTI MPA, said a biometric attendance system should be introduced for registering the attendance of the MPAs too.