The challenge of census

This is apropos Business Recorder editorial "Hows and whys of population census" carried by the newspaper yesterday. The newspaper has argued, among other things that "suspicions among the parties are that the PML-N is reluctant to hold census in its current tenure and the MQM is opposed to the house count. Hopefully, the CCI in its upcoming meeting would dispel these suspicions by announcing a clear roadmap for this exercise which cannot and should not be delayed any further and must be credible when held for very obvious reasons. It needs to be recognised that NFC Awards become ineffective in the absence of a reasonably accurate population census."
The arguments advanced by the newspaper are quite plausible. It has, however, seemed to have lost sight of the fact that the current situation doesn't warrant the holding of census exercise owing to a variety of factors. For example, the nation is required to demonstrate unity in these critical hours of present times as it has, through its armed forces, waged a war against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. The issue of census, unfortunately, could be employed by vested interests to create deepening fissures and divisions among people as Sindh and Balochistan face a peculiar demographic issue in relation to census. Hence the need for dealing with the challenge of census with a lot of care and prudence.