Next year, then?
So the official PML-N position on the much-awaited census has shifted, once again, from ‘definitely this year’ to ‘maybe this year’. Keeping in mind government precedent, this practically amounts to saying ‘definitely not this year’. Therefore, the best that can be expected, for the time being, is ‘maybe next year’. Since these developments come after the March deadline was again overshot this year and a good Rs2 billion were released for this purpose, someone in the government must be made to give a more quantifiable account of what became of the funds and when exactly can a census really be expected; since too many promises have been made and not honoured.
The problem, of course, is that 350,000 army personnel needed for the exercise are otherwise occupied with Zarb-e-Azb. And since the Operation is coming full circle, at least in the badlands, the government apparently expects the number to be available by March next year. But what if the army is busy with, say, CPEC next year, since large infrastructure requirements will no doubt pull in the military when the bulk of the hard work is required? And the year after that will come the elections; and those too are never conducted transparently unless the army is in charge.
The government’s foot-dragging on issues like local body polls is understandable to an extent; since the exercise involves devolution of power, dispersal of funds, etc, that might make the some power-hungry people in the official setup uncomfortable. But why the reluctance to hold the census? Maybe it’s because Punjab’s demographics, which give it the strongest position, are changing. If its share of total population drops below 50pc, there could well be electoral, financial, etc, changes on the wider political canvas. Maybe, just like the local body polls, the government is just waiting for the Supreme Court to remind it of its duties, just as it waits for the army to do a part of the government’s basic job.
