ISLAMABAD
Chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, Senator Taj Haider has expressed his serious concern on the reports that the Bureau of Statistics shall not be able to complete the 7th census before the fixed date of 31st December 2022.
In a press statement issued Wednesday, he said that this delay would disable the Election Commission of Pakistan to carry out their constitutional responsibility of allocation of seats in the National Assembly to each province on the basis of its actual population and to carry out delimitation of National and Provincial Assembly constituencies in all provinces.
Senator Taj Haider pointed out that the CCI majority decision to validate the faulty figures of the 6th census was conditional to holding a fresh and accurate census in the country. A time line for completing the fresh census was also specified in the CCI decision.
It was unacceptable that only the controversial and harmful part of the CCI decision should be implemented and the agreed and the beneficial part be ignored and bypassed. Such unjust and discriminatory actions cut at the root of our Federal system and weaken the Federation by creating mistrust.
One fails to understand the reason for not including any representative from Sindh in the Advisory group made by Bureau of Statistics for making a working paper for the 7th Census.
While most of the persons responsible for the controversial 6th census were included in the Advisory group, Dr. Mehtab Karim’s name from Sindh was only included after the working paper had been finalized and after strong protest from Sindh on his exclusion. There certainly is method behind this madness.
Senator Taj Haider reminded that before the 24th Amendment was passed in the Senate, all political parties represented in the Senate had signed an agreement which had specified a recount methodology for correcting the controversial figures of the 6th Census.
It is condemnable that de-jure method of counting the population that had caused the controversy and the undercount mainly in Sindh, FATA and Baluchistan had once again been recommended in the working paper of the Advisory group.
The conspiracy has been repeated and certainly there is method behind this madness.
Senator Taj Haider demanded that the agreed counting methodology of de-facto counting which counts every person residing in a house on the day of enumeration as a resident of that particular area should be adopted for the 7th Census pilot project and the actual 7th population census.
He urged the Government of Sindh to urgently demand a meeting of the CCI in which the de-facto method of count should be approved by the CCI.
