CSJ calls for accurate count of minorities’ population

LAHORE: Last census in 2017 in Pakistan became controversial that prompted the government to announce and conduct the 7th census again in August 2022. The census results were disturbing for religious minorities as well.

A press release issued Tuesday by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), engaging in research and public awareness about the 6th population census in general and data on religious minorities in particular, said the official census data showed an overall growth of about 60% from 1998 to 2017, whereas the population growth of religious minorities showed surprisingly asymmetrical trends.

The growth of the Christian population was only 25.71%, while Hindu 70% and the scheduled castes population increased exponentially by 157.58 %. The Qadiani population declined by 64.28%, “other religions” declined by 60%. The Christian population declined significantly by 0.32% in the aggregate figure.

The overall minority population fell from 3.73% in 1998 to 3.53% in 2017 (0.18% decrease in 19 years). In a communication sent to the government, Wajahat Masood and Peter Jacob, the Chairperson and Executive Director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) have sent proposals for holding a credible census. Mainly, CSJ has urged the government to postpone holding a census till April 2023 to allow proper preparation; removal of the culture of secrecy in gathering and compiling the census data; an early awareness campaign on registration; use of alternative means of verification; confidence-building release of comprehensive and segregated provisional census results to avoid misunderstandings caused by delay in announcement of final census results. Based on the analysis of the past two censuses, the CSJ has made recommendations to the Federal Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Planning and Development.