Karachi
The 1998 population census in Pakistan was flawed with around four to seven million people not being accounted for. A fresh census must be held right away, as we must understand that we are violating the Constitution by dilly-dallying about it.
This was stated by Dr Mehtab S Karim, vice chancellor of the Malir University of Science and Technology, while speaking at a seminar, titled ‘Urgency of a census and inimical forces’, at the PMA House on Saturday evening.
The sixth census, he said, has been postponed for years. The issue was considered by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in 2010 and it was decided to hold it in 2011.
A household census, said Dr Karim, was held in 2011 just counting the number of people in each household, but a regular population census was never conducted.
Among the reasons he cited for the delay in the holding of the sixth census was the country’s law and order situation which, Dr Karim said, was not conducive in many parts of the country to the holding of a census, given the disturbed conditions.
He further said that political implications were read into the exercise because interested quarters thought that it would affect the distribution of National Assembly (NA) seats to their disadvantage and adversely affect the distribution of resources among provinces.
It was considered to be a sensitive issue. “Due to discrepancies in the 1998 exercise, there has always remained a pressing need for a fresh census. Sindh’s population has increased more rapidly than that of other provinces, reason being that while all provinces registered similar levels of population growth, there was large-scale internal migration to this particular province.”
Dr Karim said that the 1998 census showed that while Karachi housed over seven percent of the country’s population, over 20 percent of these were people who had migrated internally.
Abdul Khaliq Junejo, chairman of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz, said that people from other provinces should not be allowed to purchase property in Sindh. Similarly, he said, people migrating to Sindh from other provinces must not be allowed to hold property or businesses in the provinces till such time as they proved incontrovertibly that they planned to stay in Sindh permanently and swore allegiance to the province. He insisted that a census must precede the NFC Award.
“Allocation of NA seat on the basis of the 1998 census means that 30 percent of the seats were for the Punjab. A new census could upset this balance and lead to the collapse of the feudal system which is suiting a certain segment of the population right now,” said Junejo.
The census, he added, would weaken the feudal system because now Sindh has a far larger number of urban centres than it did previously. He said that the implications of a census were not just economic or resource distribution, as it was also about preserving the identity and ethnicity of groups.
In this context, he cited Articles 15 and 23 of the Indian Constitution which laid down that no non-Kashmiri could go and settle in Kashmir, purchase property or business there.
He said it should be the same in Sindh. “If Karachi is said to be a mini-Pakistan, then it should get the requisite resources too.”
Barrister Ravi Sinjani said that the National Database Registration Authority’s (Nadra) data could not be relied upon as no alien living in the city would ever go to Nadra to report his stay in town.
Contradicting Abdul Khaliq Junejo, he said that a census had nothing to do with identity or ethnicity.
Advocate Amanullah Sheikh also highlighted the need for an urgent fresh census and said that Sindh generated more than 50 percent of the country’s resources, but a majority of these went to the Punjab.
The seminar was held under the joint aegis of the Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences and the Malir University of Science and Technology.