Any effort by way of registration in powder-keg constituencies is bound to flare up. So the latest instalment of the population census, the largest exercise in registration that any state can undertake, was bound to have its share of discontents and strife. Till now, no widespread violence has been reported, though there have been many protests, the latest being Saturday’s strike in Sindh. Much is at stake here. The results of the census can feed into the constituency delimitation by the election commission; the representation of particular geographic areas can increase and – the most dangerous aspect – they can provide an impetus for vote registration drives by the political parties that seek to represent migrant communities.
Though evolving ethnic demography is a phenomenon that has been observed throughout the country, much of the current tension boils down to Hyderabad and Karachi. Sindhi nationalists – and a smattering of Baloch ones too – have serious reservations with the way the elections have been purportedly hijacked by the MQM. Meanwhile, in Karachi it is the ANP – for whom the Sindhi nationalists also have no love lost – that has been rallying against the MQM’s alleged efforts to minimise the Pushtun majority areas. The MQM, for its part, has been saying, with a remarkably straight face, that it is only “assisting” the census officials.
The complaints of the Sindhi nationalists, however, should not be construed as xenophobia a la nationalists in Balochistan. In the case of the latter, there is an effort to neutralise and scare away the Punjabi demographic. In the case of Sindh, however, the original inhabitants are only campaigning for an unbiased and correct tabulation of demographic realities. Just like the Pushtuns of Karachi.
There is a dire need to make the process as transparent as it could be. Right now, the Karachi component of the census is as shady as the Karachi component of that other exercise in registration, the general elections. A lack of acceptability of these results will lead to an alienation from the positive framework of the state. The communities of the area in question are viewing the process in terms of justice and lack thereof. The only remedy, hence, is a process that is not only fair but also seen to be fair.
