Digital census: PPP, MQM-P say concerned about ‘under-reporting’ of Sindh population

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have expressed serious concerns at under-reporting the population of Sindh by 30 million which would reduce the provincial share from the divisible pool by Rs 500 billion.

Senator Taj Haider in charge of the Central Election Cell of the PPP while talking to Business Recorder said: “Very disturbing reports about undercounting of Sindh’s population are being received by our Central Election Cell from sources located in different provinces.

Initial computations for Sindh reveal that the damage that would be borne by Sindh as a result of the so-called ‘Digital Census’ is far greater than what was initially feared and we will strongly protest if grossly understated population figures are published in the Gazette notification of August 7, 2023.“

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Haider further said that the federal government has budgeted Rs 1255 billion for Sindh from the divisible pool. “The revenue assignment to Sindh of Rs1,255 billion as part of Federal transfers would go down by a minimum of Rs500 billion if it was calculated on these reduced underreported population figures of Sindh.

We need these rightful allocations for rebuilding 2 million homes, putting solar panels on 2.1 million houses, redesigning and reconstructing devastated irrigation infrastructure and roads, providing free medical and educational services and making productive investments in order to create more employment opportunities,“ he said.

“If anyone thinks that we will accept reduced figures of population they are grossly mistaken,” Taj Haider stated.

While acknowledging that the PPP had agreed in the meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI) that constituencies would not be changed but that negotiations would continue on the result of the new digital census, Haider contended that the PPP Central Election Cell is receiving alarming reports from Provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that in remote and sensitive areas where no enumeration exercise had been carried out the notified population figures of various districts were significantly less than the ones that had been readily available in the digital census.

He said that in Sindh where such data was mostly available the figures of houses and residents in many districts obtained in the much trumpeted ‘digital census’ count had been arbitrarily reduced by almost 10% in the notified census figures.

According to a handout issued by Senator Taj Haider, “Sindh which remains the destination of economic migrants from other provinces, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, and a large number of illegal migrants, has been allotted an average family size (AFS) of a mere 5.64. Punjab has an average family size of 6.43, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 6.94 and Balochistan 6.42.

It may be noted that the reduction of just one person in average family size results in a reduction of 18 to 20% in the total population of Sindh.“

Holding of general elections within the constitutionally mandated time remains the party’s top priority at present, Taj Haider averred.

Separately, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has vowed that any number less than that in the final results of the recently concluded census would be rejected and the party would launch a peaceful protest.

MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that his party would strongly oppose any census data that underreports Sindh’s population by 30 million.

He said that his party had serious reservations over the census process. “We hope that after the assurances from the top, the census results will be rectified in the verification, rectification and post-enumeration audit phases,” he added.

Former Secretary ECP Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad told Business Recorder that any political party which had reservations over ECP’s announced delimitation after the new census was approved by the CCI may challenge it in the Supreme Court of Pakistan as the election commission would not reverse its decision.

He said that the ECP had given a schedule to complete the delimitation exercise by December 14, 2023, adding that the general election would not possibly be held before February, 2024. However, ECP had the mandate to announce an earlier date, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023