Press. voanews.com
Officials in Pakistan say that arrangements are in place to conduct a
national census for the first time in 19 years starting Wednesday, and more
than 200,000 troops will assist civilian enumerators in collecting the data. Information
minister Maryam Aurangzeb told a news conferences in Islamabad Sunday the
70-day door-to-door campaign will be concluded in two phases at a financial
cost of around $185-million.
The minister explained that nearly 120,000 specially trained government
workers have been deployed to undertake the much-needed census. She called on
citizens to cooperate with the counters and warned against “willfully” giving
false information, saying those found guilty would face a six-month jail term
and a financial penalty of around $500.
“Pakistan is ready for the sixth housing and population survey ... As we
all know it has been after 19 years that we are going into this census process.
We all know how distribution of resources, evidence-based legislation and
policy-making are important for policy of the country for social service
provisions,” she said.
Army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor told reporters that his
institutions has been tasked to provide security and ensure the census is conducted
in a “smooth” and “transparent” manner.
“A solider will accompany every civil enumerator and will also collect
his own data during the door-to-door campaign. We have put in place a system to
immediately verify the information,” Ghafoor said. He added that more than
200,000 soldiers involved in the activity have undergone special training
sessions.
Pakistan’s population has exploded since its first consensus in 1951,
when it had around 34 million inhabitants. The World Bank estimated in 2015 the
country’s population at 190 million, but Pakistani officials still use the
figure of 134.7 million from the census conducted in 1998 for planning
development programs. An estimated 60 percent of Pakistanis are under the age
of 30.
Activists blame the lack of census, among major factors, for depleting
health and education services, increasing malnutrition and stunting and
pressure on scarce water resources. Pakistan has been battling an Islamic
militancy for more than 13 years that officials cite as a major reason for the
long delay in holding the census.
The population census is also used to assign electoral seats in
Pakistan’s parliament. Critics say mainstream and regional political parties
have influenced previous census exercises in the country, leading to
over-representations of some regions in the parliament.
Officials say that around three million registered and unregistered
Afghan refugees in Pakistan will also be counted in the census. The decision
has outraged leaders, particularly in southwestern Baluchistan province where
the ethnic Baluch population fears it would turn them into a minority in their
native region.
Parities in southern Sindh province, particularly in its capital,
Karachi, have also opposed the inclusion of Afghans and have demanded the
census be postponed until all the refugees return to their country.
But government officials have dismissed those concerns as unfounded and
politically-motivated. Pakistan’s transgender community would also be included
in the census for the first time in the country’s history. Officials say the
U.N. Population Fund has agreed to assign international observers to oversee the
administration of the census.