Daily Times

The first census in subcontinent was performed during 1881 under the British rule. This census also covered the areas which came under the jurisdiction of Islamic Republic of Pakistan after partitioning in 1947. It was planned to carry out population census of Pakistan every 10 years covering the entire country. Accordingly, the first census after autonomy of Pakistan was conducted in 1951 followed by 1961, 1972, 1981 and 1998 and the population growths were 1.8, 2.4, 3.6, 3.0 and 2.6,respectively. Regarding to statistics, the growth rate of population were increased exponentially. The 1971 census was postponed one year due to war with India and separation of East Pakistan, while the census in 1991 was delayed owing to lack of political will in the country.

Pakistan’s previous population census was conducted almost 20 years ago in 1998.There are few reasons for delaying Census. Now, consensus has arrived on the census which has also pushed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan

According to sources, the first justification behind delay was the registration of Afghan immigrants has been the major conflict between provinces, as Balochistan rejected to conduct census until and unless counting of Afghan migrants is completed.

The rival ethnic groups in Balochistan and some politicians from the Mohajir, Sindhi and Pashtun groups were in a power struggle as well as competition for resources. These groups are feared of being marginalized due to massive internal displacement and existence of around four million Afghan migrants in the country. Any new numbers on the ethnic make-up would upset an uneasy status quo.

Pakistan’s next national census was expected in 2007. But then PML-Q government could not accomplish it before the general elections due to explosive political circumstances emerging out of murder of PPP’s chairperson Mrs. Benazir Bhutto. Later on, census was scheduled in 2008 and then in 2010 but these faced the same fate.

At the end, the Supreme Court of Pakistan intervene by exposed anxiety over the delay over of strongly needed population census and demanded from the government to provide root causes behind delaying the census. Report presented by the Governmen tin reply to Supreme Court of Pakistan showed its motive that the services of the Armed forces are mandatory to carry out this exercise, but it remained unavailable previously due to engagement of forces in the war against terrorism. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) informed the CCI ,in a meeting which was held on 25th march 2016 that the required number of army workforce cannot be available at the moment because troops are currently battling in the anti-terrorism campaign in ongoing Operation of Zarb-e-Azb. The CCI further decided that “Statistics Division shall remain engaged with all stakeholders including Ministry of Defence for accessibility of essential armed forces staff” and shall keep the CCI updated.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered the federal government, NADRA and Ministry of Interior to include the transgender Community and this is going to happening for the first time in the history of Pakistan that the country’s transgender community will included in this national exercise.

A total of 166,801 blocks in the entire country requiring 375,000 soldiers to carry out the national exercise. Actually, the government expects the required number to be in hand by March, but if the army remains busy in operation of Zarb-e-Azb or CPEC large Infrastructure necessities will drag the Military away from the massiveness and tough work required for the census this year and for the elections in the next year.

The federal government is spendingRs.16 billion on census and less than one-fourth of this amount would be required for the Nadra for CNICs and B Forms, which will surely remove the chance of any inaccuracy.

According to officials, census is usually held in two phases. The first is Housing listing and population (housing listing is usually carried out a few month before the main census) and second is housing census. The entire country will be divided into census blocks and each block would need one civilian and one soldier besides the military deployment for security. In the first phase, the census will start in KPK from Mardan and Peshawar, in Punjab from DGK, Sargodha and Faisalabad, in Balochistan from Sibi, Makran, Quetta and Zhob and in Sindh from Karachi and Hyderabad. In the second phase, the census will be conducted from AJK, FATA and Gilgit Baltistan.

The political parties as well as government have the personal political interest behind policy making rather national interests. Firstly, both should have gain the weight-age from public opinion and secondly, political parties especially the one which forming the government, must come on the plat form of national interest. It is rightly or wrongly said that democracy in our country can’t run without the support of Military. In every challenge, whether natural disaster or the matter of terrorism or achieving some goal for national development requires support from Military to the political parties and the institutions. So, the democratically elected governments needed to strengthen the institutions and provide them with desired technical, economical and human resource competence to reduce the burden on Armed forces.

Population growth (annual percent) in Pakistan was last assessed to 2.08 in 2015, according to the World Bank. According to the National Nutrition Survey in Pakistan, approximately 60 percent population is in facing food insecurity as, 50 percent of the women and children were malnourished. Holding a census in an effective and timely manner gives the policy maker clear view of the larger country’s population and its rising needs for policy planning.

The author is a student at Punjab University