Sept

kahwish

khabrain

jinnah

the news sept 3

 

the news article

Why is the PPP government running away from holding a census on time? It is reported that it has delayed the census six times in a period of one and half years! The last census was held in 1998 and was disputed. It was supposed to be held in 1991 and was late in any case. And now as per the current schedule the current census should have been held in 2008 but is still delayed.

 

So called democratic National parties talk about provincial autonomy and development but when it comes to the critical tools to implement them they fall short of real actions. Its high time progressive parliamentarians in all political parties put enough pressure on the government to hold a census on an urgent basis.

 

The excuse of war, terrorism law and order cannot be used by government since in many countries (Iraq, Afghanistan,Turkey) census has been held despite this condition. Moreover, if these conditions exist it becomes even more important to hold census so that demographics are understood. Most developed countries either have a census every 10 years or every 5 years; Simply so that development and governance is seamless.  The UN and most constitutions encourage this practice at regular intervals.

 

The need for a census is a public interest issue because we all use public services including schools, health services, roads, sanitation services etc. These services need to be planned so that they are adequate for population expansion. However it is impossible to plan for ‘invisible’ people.  How can employment be planned and a productive workforce be created for a country without an up todate census? All the government’s plans and announcements will fall short of meeting expectations if they don’t have up todate demographic data. Businesses functioning in Pakistan can hardly run super successful businesses without having target market data. No wonder we are still developing and not developed. It’s a simple critical tool badly needed and yet governments run away from it for political expediencies.

 

Nationalists or provincial autonomy champions accuse the government of delaying the census because government doesn’t want to face the facts on the growing populations in the smaller provinces and thus the impact this will have on resource sharing. If government is serious about resolving provincial harmony issues they must conduct a transparent census immediately, or else these accusations will become popular national perception.

 

How can NFC formulas hold any meaning without a census? What is the implementation mechanism for the census going to be? How transparently will it be conducted? Government talks about poverty surveys for better BISP fund distribution. But it shies away from the most worthwhile development related tool.

 

We have within the government structure an entire organization called the Population Census Organization and another Ministry called the Planning Commission. These organizations need accurate data to produce effective plans or else they are misleading the government on development strategies. They need to present their plans in parliament and take an approval if we consider parliament to be truly supreme.

 

In short for us younger parliamentarians to plan for a developed, just and moderate Pakistan, we need a census to be executed on war time footing. If government doesn’t have a mission, vision, strategy, we do. We are not going to sit idle and wait. We will demand our tools through parliament, and through media. If the government chooses to deny us our right, we all will understand its ulterior motives.