Overdue headcount: SC seeks more robust briefing on census

Govt considering holding population census in phases

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the federal government to give a ‘comprehensive presentation’ for delaying the population census in the next hearing on October 18.

The chief justice had taken suo motu notice regarding delay in holding the population census in the country even after the lapse of 17 years.

The three-justice bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that the process of holding the census should have started on a war footing basis.

During the course of hearing, Justice Saqib wondered how the government system is running without holding a census, adding the share of provinces in revenue could only be determined if the latest census data was available. Likewise, it is also helpful to know how much unemployment rate is in the country, he added.



He lamented that foreign countries have been conducting surveys to get the number of sugar patients “but the government of Pakistan is unable to hold ‘general census’ and postponing it time and again”.

On the other hand, Chief Statistician Asif Bajwa presented a host of reasons for delay in the conduct of census and also expressed helplessness in proposing a fresh timeframe due to the unavailability of around 167,000 armed forces personnel for deployment at man-to-man level.

He said this was necessary to ensure authenticity of the data. Bajwa cited the example of the House Listing Operations (HLOs) carried out in 1990 and 2011 without the involvement of the armed forces, and said the results demonstrated that vested groups had significantly exaggerated the results.

He also informed the court that 165,000 teachers will be trained for this exercise, adding the federal government is considering holding the census in phases.

Additional Attorney General Muhammad Waqar Rana stated that the army will reassess the availability of soldiers in December. “After that, three months will be required to prepare for the census that will likely start in March and April.”

However, the bench asked the government to give a comprehensive presentation on October 18 regarding the procedure as well as its plans for holding the census.

Earlier, the federal government expressed apprehension that provinces might manipulate the population census data, twisting the results to their advantage.

The government also rejected the military’s proposal of using portable computers to conduct the much-delayed headcount of the country’s population and has refused to amend census forms to include transgender as a separate sex.

The General Headquarters (GHQ) had proposed using tablet computers for the census exercise to ensure fast processing and accuracy of the data.

However, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) termed the proposal unfeasible. The bureau said it had already printed 42.5 million census forms and that procuring 167,000 tablets and training primary school teachers to use them would require huge resources.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.