Pakistans long-delayed census has been put off again because the army does not want to spare the tens of thousands of troops needed for the exercise at a time when the countrys border with India is hot.
According to the government, the decision to defer the fifth population and housing census was influenced by considerations of national security.The census has been put off in view of the national security situation, said Federal Population welfare minister Syeda Abida Hussain. The government had made all preparations to hold the census, including training hundreds of thousands of civilian staff. More than 150,000 troops were to be involved in the marathon count scheduled to be held from October 18 to 31.
However, the government thought it proper not to risk engaging such a large number of soldiers in a non-military exercise in view of the uneasy situation along the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
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The census, which was first due in 1991, has been postponed thrice by successive governments for different reasons, the main being the fear expressed by some provinces that the exercise could reduce their population and, as a result, trim their share of central government financial assistance.
Over a period of time, the census had become a contentious political issue. It was difficult to reach a consensus because different federal governments did not have a hold on the elected provincial administrations.
However, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs resounding electoral wins in the provinces had made it possible for his government to go ahead with the census.
But there was stiff opposition from Baluchistan to the census, with the largest parliamentary group of the three-party ruling coalition in the province threatening that it would not accept the result of the exercise if Afghan refugees were also counted.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees who came to Baluchistan in early 1980s are still living there. Eighty per cent of the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan have managed to get Pakistani identity cards and passports.
Baluchistan National Party (BNP) leader Mir Hasil Bizenjo said his party is neither in favour of postponing the census nor would it support the demand made by his rival party, Pukhtoonkhwa Awami Milli Party, to include Afghan refugees in the census.
On the other hand, Sindhi nationalists were also opposing the census, fearing it would show a smaller population for the rural areas of Sindh thereby reducing their political influence.
According to a newspaper report, feudal landowners in the countryside were also making behind-the-scene efforts to get the census postponed fearing that it would show more people living in the towns than in the villages, thus affecting their position.
Pakistans first population census in 1951 recorded a population of 33.81 million, including that of former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The second census ten years later estimated the population at 42.97 million, and this had grown to 65.32 million by the time the third head count was held in 1972. In 1981, the census found 84.25 million people living in Pakistan.
No precise figure of the current national population is available. One estimate puts this at close to 140 million. International agencies like the UN Fund for Population (UNFPA) have been urging successive Pakistani governments to go ahead with the census.
Abroad News Service (credit mandatory) ends/7.10.97