Talks are the way out
The PML-N government had shown little keenness to hold the census till the Supreme Court pushed it to fulfill a constitutional obligation. What took place was no more than a headcount minus the collection of vital socio-economic data regarding changing needs of society, availability of resources to different areas, internal migration, mortality, fertility, disabilities and other social indicators. Right from day one there were complaints from political parties about the shortcomings of the exercise. Most vocal were the Baloch nationalists – who wanted the exclusion of the Afghan refugees prior to the start of the census.
The census has made interesting findings. The population growth in Punjab has lagged behind all provinces. It will be the only province to lose its previous share in NFC Award and in National Assembly seats. The gainers are KP and Balochistan – on account of their population growth ratio. Sindh’s share in the total population increased marginally from 23 percent to 23.4 percent and the province would neither be a loser nor a gainer. Another remarkable finding is that the urban population in Sindh has increased from 48.75 percent in 1998 to 52.02 percent in 2017. Karachi’s population has grown close to 60pc to reach 14.91m, while Lahore’s population has more than doubled to 11.13m from 5.14m.
The findings have drawn strong reaction from PPP Sindh and MQM-P which has accused the federal government of conspiring to reduce the population figures of Sindh. But had there been a conspiracy, Punjab would not have been a loser. There were already reports that migration to Karachi had slowed down due to the law and order situation while it had increased in the case of Lahore.
While the PPP and MQM agree that Sindh’s population has been artificially undercounted, they differ on the urban-rural share of population. The PPP is reluctant to accept the census results as these would reduce its representation in Sindh Assembly, the Senate and NA. Khurshid Shah’s suggestion to compare the data collected by the statistics division and the Pakistan Army needs to be given a try to resolve the issue.
