Karachi, July 05, 2023 (PPI-OT): In Charge of the Central Election Cell of Pakistan People’s Party Senator Taj Haider has said in a press statement issued today that fair elections were simply not possible if the census figures provided to the Election Commission of Pakistan for seat allocation and delimitation were themselves fake and controversial. Census was a subject included in the Federal Legislative List Part II which has to be controlled and supervised by the CCI. It was unfortunate that a line department of the Federal Government namely the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has been allowed to play with the fate of the country for the second time running.
Sindh at least since January 2022 (18 months) has been raising serious objections on the way PBS had deliberately been following a policy to undercount the populations of the smaller provinces. They took over the functions of CCI and made a Census Advisory Committee in February 2021. This unconstitutional Committee had 5 employees of the Federal Government, 5 experts from Islamabad/Punjab, one retired PBS employee, only one member each from Baluchistan and Pakhtun Khawa and none from Sindh.
A large majority of even this unrepresentative Committee was against de-jure method of counting and advocated de-facto method. However, Member PBS Governing Council from Punjab and the gentleman who as the Acting Chief Statistician had messed up Census 2017, bulldozed the opinions of the Committee members and thrust the de-jure method. The extra-long census questionnaire which created wide spaces for manipulation was not even brought before the Advisory Committee. The conspiracy was so glaring that the conspirators were themselves afraid of the Committee they had created in stark violation of the Constitution.
Simultaneous house count and population count instead of the house count being completed ahead of the population count, decades old moth eaten block maps and the discriminatory extensions of population counting dates have made this Census a cruel joke played with the nation and specially the provinces which have been under counted. Population of Sindh has been undercounted by at least 30 million which can be verified by simple arithmetic. The Post Enumeration Survey (PES) of this Census which has already been rejected is adding salt to deep wounds. Senator Taj Haider demanded that it was high time that the CCI took cognisance of this matter in which a handful of persons have caused 35 billion from the national exchequer to go down the drain. No need to point out that under the Constitution it is one of the most important duties of the CCI.
For more information, contact:
PPP Media Cell (Sindh)
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)
Peoples Secretariat Shikarpur Colony,
Behind Mazar-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Karachi, Pakistan
Cell: +92-305-3370383
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.ppp.org.pk