First phase of census remains largely smooth

ISLAMABAD: The month-long first phase of the grand national population census was remarkably smooth without any disruption barring a gory incident in which the census team was attacked, killing four army men and three others in Lahore on April 5.

This was a terrorist strike to achieve the nefarious objectives than impeding the census.

The army men accompanying the team were the target. Despite this episode, there was no change in the census schedule.

Although the exercise was spread in 63 districts of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, no other incident took place anywhere to inhibit the process, which, it had been decided at the highest level, would be carried out come what may.

To begin with, no complaints emerged from any political or public quarter about the census.

The presence of the soldiers with the enumerators belonging to different civilian departments ensured complete law and order as well as transparency.

The second phase will begin on April 25 to continue for one month. The same paraphernalia will remain in place for this stage.

The census became possible only due to the security cover provided by the Pakistan Army.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has put his full weight behind hassle-free holding of the process. He has repeatedly said that provision of assistance was the national duty.

Nearly 200,000 military personnel were engaged in the exercise.

However, despite sparing of such a large number of army men for the census made no difference on the all-encompassing nationwide anti-terrorism campaign. Rather, the new military operation Raddul Fasaad in which the counter-terrorism departments, intelligence agencies and police are also tremendously contributing is going on in Punjab and other areas of Pakistan at a fast pace.

In fact, the majority province has been covered for the first time in such a campaign.

Two key political parties made an inane bid to obstruct an otherwise direly needed national exercise.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) filed separate petitions in superior courts, expressing reservations about the census, which is already nine years behind schedule in violation of the Constitution.

The present sixth census was due in 2008 after mandatory ten years. It might had been further delayed had the Supreme Court not pushed the government hard to hold it.

Neither the PPP government had picked up the courage to organize it nor had the MQM ever raised its conduct when it was all-powerful during Pervez Musharraf’s regime.

The Nawaz Sharif government was decisively determined to carry out the census when it decided more than a year back to the effect, but now efforts were made by these two parties to hamper it. However, no state institution is in a mood to let any hiccup come in the way to prevent it.

The PPP challenged the procedures put in place for the census in the Sindh High Court and sought disclosure of all data collected during it, claiming that irregularities are being committed.

The petition submitted to the top court by MQM Pakistan has alleged rigging in the census procedure.

There are severe anomalies in the pre-census process of blocks count, it asserted. “As part of pre-census rigging, the blocks of urban populace have been decreased.

These blocks were counted as 47.65pc during the last census but for the present exercise, they have been reduced to 45pc.

Sindh’s urban population must have increased during the past 18 years due to urbanization, but the government has reduced the number of blocks.”

When the present government had decided to hold the census, it had taken all the stakeholders on board.

The decision had been made in a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CII), which had been attended by all the provincial chief ministers.

That was the forum where all details were needed to be sorted out to avoid the subsequent grumbling.

Attempts that have failed have been made to create doubts about this supreme exercise in the absence of which proper policy planning is impossible.

After the conclusion of the second phase, true picture will emerge about a multitude of factors about Pakistan’s population, which will help the policy makers and financial and development managers to chalk out appropriate strategies.

There may be some changes in the number of National Assembly seats for different provinces.

In case of such eventuality, there will be no need to make a constitutional amendment to increase or reduce the seats of one province or the other on the basis of the census.

An ordinary notification will suffice.