Govt plan to postpone the census would be implemented, with the blame for it resting purely with the armed forces
KARACHI: This is with reference to an editorial in your newspaper, “A bad decision” (March 2). You are absolutely right in pointing out that “the writing on the wall…” — the postponement of the census — had been there for weeks now. I would only disagree to the extent that the project fell through, not because of the army’s refusal to release the required number of soldiers — 375,000 to be precise — for conducting the census in a credible manner. The demand for 375,000 soldiers at one go was deliberately built up, in the safe knowledge that due to the situation at the eastern border and within the country, there was simply no way the army could spare more than half of its strength for census duties. So, this way the government’s plan to postpone the census would be successfully implemented, with the blame for it resting purely with the armed forces.
The fact that these vital issues were not taken up until the government was in its third year, and so close to the proposed launch date of the census, testifies to the government’s dishonesty, which is a standard behaviour pattern on matters of public interest.
I do not believe that the army’s refusal to spare 375,000 soldiers came as a shock to government officials, and that they did not know in advance that the demand wouldn’t be met. The fact that they refused even to consider the alternatives — for a phased or province-wise census — makes their intentions obvious.
With a phased census, there was the obvious risk of double counting due to the movement of people. However, this would have been only minimal for the simple reason that unlike the elections, when parties pay generously to buy votes, they would not be as enthusiastic in this respect where they would have to pay for transport expenses. In any case, it would have provided far more accurate figures of the population and its make-up for planning purposes, instead of just groping in the dark, which is what we do at the moment.
The population census carried special significance for urban Sindh, especially Karachi, where delimitations of constituencies, based on 1998 figures, give the rural Sindh-based PPP a stranglehold on the administration and resources of the whole province, due to an unduly large number of seats it gets in the provincial and national assemblies. These unfair delimitations have deprived the citizens of Karachi of their fair share in assembly seats as well as financial resources, with its increased population, compared with 1998, entitles it to.
Even the armed forces, which back the Rangers, seem to be restricting their operations to a level — which, in a well-administered country, would have been more appropriate for mid-ranking law enforcers and corruption-probing officials — and are not prepared to go any higher, despite having the powers to do so.
On the other hand, the city seems to be getting far more than its fair share of the activities of the terror-busting and corruption-probing agencies, which seem to be focused on the city, to the neglect of the rest of the country. This disparity amounting to grave injustice has been regularly pointed out in various talk shows and by affected politicians and members of the public, but to no avail.
S R H Hashmi
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2016.
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