Population census plays a significant role in future political and economic policy making and it should have been regularly carried out after every 10 years. But this is not happening here in Pakistan.
This is important to know about the actual number of country-men, for political representation and distribution of economic resources among the provinces. Whenever the census is caried out, it is marred by controversy.
As per the official statistics, Pakistan’s population reached 241.14 million in the latest and 7th Census, which is the first digital, with a growth of 2.55 percent since 2017. Politicians and regional groups express concerns over the census, as some critics see its impact on the political representation and distribution of resources in the future. Some say it was unconstitutional to hold a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), a constitutional body, as two provinces; Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, were represented by the caretaker Chief Ministers. The argument is that it is beyond the mandate of the caretaker government to represent the provinces.
The Council of Common Interest (CCI) in its meeting presided over by the former prime minister Shahbaz Sharif gave approval to the 7thCensus. Now, the Election Commission of Pakistan is tasked to complete the delimitation of the constituencies for the next general elections. The elections were scheduled to be held by the end of this year but now seem to be happening next year.
Voices of concern are being raised by politicians in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as it was suspected that the province could lose some of the National Assembly seats. Erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area or FATA had 12 seats in the National Assembly but now reduced to 6 only, which is now part of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. FATA comprised seven districts and 6 semi-tribal regions were merged into the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in 2018. Some of the districts have less than the required population to get even a single national assembly seat. The area had suffered due to militancy for nearly two decades and once again under pressure from the cross-border terrorist attacks.
According to the 7th Census data, the population of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is recorded as 40.8 million that was 35.5 million in 2017. Political leaders in the province term the population as underreported that would have negative impact on its political representation and will reduce its share in the National Finance Commission.
Former senior minister of KP and leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Inayatullah Khan told a seminar, held recently in Peshawar that 82 percent of the resources under NFC are distributed on the basis of population.
He also highlighted that a sizeable number of the KP population are residing in other provinces and abroad, so they have been ignored in the counting. A number of factors that led to migration and displacement of the population include urbanization, employment and the security situation in the province.
In the last decade or so, hundreds of thousands were internally displaced due to the military operations in most parts of the province. However, many families returned to their respective native districts but many did not as the areas close to the Afghan border and former tribal districts have been facing the menace of terrorism in the latest wave. Some families have permanently migrated to Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi and other cities. However, there is no proper official statistics available to know the actual number.
Census is not only to count head but household, needs, facilities, education, electoral representation and required resources. In some cases, according to the officials of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the people are counted in their native areas but are living in other parts of the country and are sharing their resources.
Questions were also raised on the accuracy of the census as in some parts of the KP province, accessibility is an issue and it is difficult to reach some areas. Though it is believed that the government tried its best to keep this census away from controversy as it is done digitally, but the critics argue that the digital equipment; laptop and other machines are manned by human and there remains a possibility of errors.
In 2017, 6th Census was conducted after almost 19 years, however, that census was objected by the political parties and different groups disputed its credibility. It was decided then to conduct 7th Census before the next general elections, scheduled for 2023. It took more than a year to complete the 2023 Census, and it was decided to hold general elections on the basis of the 2017.
However, just days before the dissolution of the parliament, a meeting of CCI was called in to give approval to the 7th population census and the Election Commission of Pakistan was asked to start the delimitation process before the elections. It is said it will take six months to complete redrawing the constituencies.
However, some officials said it could be done in less than a month as now everything is ready. How this census could be helpful for future political representation and every province could get its due share in the resources. The relevant authorities need to allay the apprehensions of the people and make the process more transparent in future.
