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Thursday March 28, 2024

Census and the court

By our correspondents
December 03, 2016

The government has deployed every excuse in the book to indefinitely delay conducting the census. Its most recent explanation was that the census could not be held without the help of the army, which is currently engaged along the LoC. Before that Operation Zarb-e-Azb was given as the reason for not fulfilling its duty to have a census every 10 years. The Supreme Court has finally had enough and demanded the census be carried out in March. The court has even warned that it would be summoning the prime minister to court should there be any more excuses and delays. The SC has given its strongest rebuke yet to the government. It would cause major embarrassment for the government if the PM were to be summoned on the matter and be told off by the honourable court. One of the reasons both the PML-N government, and the PPP one before it, have kept putting off the census could be because they knew a new census had the potential to hurt them electorally. The population make-up of Pakistan has changed significantly since the last census in 1998, which would translate into a reshuffle of seats in parliament. However, such base political considerations should not rationalise the damage being done to the country by not updating its population statistics.

Pakistan has changed so much since 1998, having undergone rapid urbanisation and seen the rise of a burgeoning middle class. The only data the government has to set policy are customised surveys and the Nadra database, neither of which is an acceptable substitute for something as comprehensive as a census. The Nadra database over-represents those who need and are able to afford an NIC or passport. It thus makes it seem as if the median Pakistani is wealthier than he or she actually is. Other surveys conducted by the government need a census from which to draw an appropriate sampling frame. That census happens to be the outdated 1998 census, which calls into question the accuracy of all government surveys. Everything from designing welfare programmes to knowing how many schools and hospitals are needed in an area becomes more difficult without an accurate census. The SC has also questioned whether the next election would even be fair without the new census and a new delimitation of constituencies. In essence, the SC has made the conducting of a census a question of the legitimacy of the state. This is true. The constant delays over conducting a census no longer make any sense. It is shameful that it has taken Supreme Court intervention to finally set a date for a census which should have been conducted eight years ago.