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Federal Government Rejects Objections on Census

ٰٰIslamabad (August 28, 2017): The federal government rejecting the objections being raised on the sixth population and housing census results has said that the counting process was conducted in a transparent manner.

Member statistics division Habibullah Khattak said that monitoring committees were formed in all four provinces to ensure transparency in the census results, at which the opposition parties had voiced serious concerns, questioning the authenticity of the figures released by the government.

He said an additional time was also allotted to entertain the complaints related to the census.

According to the provisional census data presented to the Council of Common Interest (CCI) last week, the country’s population has surged to 207.77 million, having experienced a 57 per cent increase since the last census in 1998.

Earlier Sindh government on Monday announced that it would reject the provisional results of the sixth population census.

In a policy statement issued on Monday, provincial minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the federal government has conspired to reduce Sindh population in the statistics.

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“This move is aimed at reducing Sindh’s share in the National Finance Commission as well as in the national and provincial assembly seats and the job quota in federal government services,” Khuhro, the president of the PPP Sindh chapter, added.

He said the PPP government in Sindh would not accept this conspiracy.

“Almost all major political parties in Sindh have rejected the census results. This census has now become controversial,” he remarked.

Khuhro maintained that his party had pointed out the census staff’s unfair practices but no attention was paid to its reservations.“The census officials didn’t take notice of the fact that in various districts of Sindh, census forms were filled by enumerators themselves. The census staff wasn’t even able to reach many areas,” he noted.

“We also requested them [census officials] to provide each family with a copy of their filled form, but the census staff didn’t bother to pay any heed to us.”

The PPP leader said the party had raised this issue given that the federal government had always manipulated the census results in the past.

“The PPP government in Sindh will not succumb to any pressure and will raise this issue at every forum,” he added.“We will take it up at the upcoming Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting too.”

Khuhro said in all sectors including water distribution, natural resources and the divisible pool, the federal government had created problems for the province.

“We will call an APC on this issue and devise our future course of action.”

In a press conference, provincial senior minister Nisar Khoro rejected the census results and termed it conspiracy against Sindh.

“The population of Sindh has been shown lower than the real population aimed conspiracy against Sindh,” he said.

Nisar Khuhro said the PPP government will not let the province be treated in an unfair manner.

“We will not let the federal government treat the province unfairly and we will take what is rightfully ours,” said Khuhro.The provisional government also alleged that Sindh’s population was shown to be less than its actual number in order to not increase the province’s share in the National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

The PPP-led government has also decided to call an all party conference to discuss the reservations.

The PPP is not the only major political party in the province to raise reservations over the census results, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar on Sunday announced to lead a protest rally in 72 hours against the provisional census results.

Speaking at the party’s general workers’ convention at PIB Colony football ground, Sattar said by understating the population of Karachi census results have done injustice to all ethnic communities living in the metropolis.He said that Karachi’s population in actual is around 30 million – whereas according to the census it is 10.6 million.

Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Shah also raised reservations over the provisional report of the population census and said the records of the Statistics Division and the Pakistan Army should be compared.

Pakistan’s total population has been recorded at 207.774 million, according to the provisional summary results of the sixth population and housing census.

On August 28, Provisional results of the 6th Population and Housing Census have been announced that showed the country’s population has swelled to 207.774 million with the increase of 57 per cent in last 57 years.

This works to an average annual increase of 2.4% in population since the last census held in 1998.

The provisional summary results show an overall increase in population by 57% over the year 1998, while the population increased by 146.6 % since Census-1981.Unsurprisingly, Punjab was the most densely populated province with 110 million people, followed by Sindh with 47 million, KP with 30 million, Balochistan with 12 million, FATA with 5 million and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with 2 million.

The sixth Housing and Population Census began after a period of 19 years on March 15. The census was conducted in 16 districts of Punjab, eight districts of Sindh, 14 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 districts of Balochistan, five districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and five districts of Gilgit-Baltistan.

According to the results, Sindh’s share in the total population remains unchanged at 23 per cent.

Sindh is the most urbanised province having 52.02 per cent population in urban areas – a result that could disturb rural-urban quotas of the provincial assembly seats and jobs.

Sindh remains the second most populated province with 47.886 million people, which is 23 per cent of the total population.

Sindh’s population has grown by 57.3 per cent or 17.44 million during the past 19 years, but its overall share in the national population remains stagnant.

Sindh’s annual growth rate remained 2.41 per cent – slightly above the national average. Sindh’s urban population has increased to 52 per cent as compared to 48.9 per cent in 1998.

There are 48 per cent or 22.96 million women in Sindh – which is one per cent up when compared with the 1998 results.

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