Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) officials claimed on Tuesday that no political party has lodged a formal complaint with it regarding provisional results of the sixth census. Federal Secretary Statistics Rukhsana Yasmeen told Business Recorder that all the political parties are engaged in their election campaigns and none of them has formally approached the PBS for re-verification of the census results.
She, however, declined to comment on an agreement reached between all political parties on December 15, 2017 during a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to establish a four-member committee to finalize the procedure along with the PBS officials for re-verification of five percent data of the census results. Members of the committee included Senator Taj Haider, Senator Hasil Bizenjo, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and Senator Mushahidullah Khan. It was dissolved after retirement of Senator Taj Haider from the Upper House of the Parliament and it has not been reconstituted yet.
According to a 9-point agreement signed on December 15, 2017 which is available with Business Recorder, the PBS was directed to carry out Post Enumeration Survey (PES) of five percent randomly computer selected population blocks. It was decided in the meeting that the final report of the PES would be submitted within 30 days of the start of the process while the enumerators will work on holidays too.
"Deviations with the provisional census 2017 figures beyond plus minus one percent shall be incorporated in the final count of Census 2017," the agreement stipulated. In light of this agreement, all opposition political parties agreed to vote for a Delimitation Bill in the Senate to allow the delimitation of constituencies under provisional results of the census. The bill was finally approved by the opposition-dominant Senate on December 19.
After passage of the bill, the Election Commission of Pakistan began work on the delimitation of the constituencies from January 15 and issued initial delimitation of National and Provincial assemblies on March 5. An ECP official told Business Recorder that they have received over 1200 complaints on delimitations of the constituencies across the country and have, so far, addressed around half of the objections.
He said that the whole delimitation process would be finalised by May 3 and the ECP would issue a final notification in this regard on May 5. To a question, he said that members of political parties and general public have filed objections over the delimitation exercise, but no political party has rejected it altogether.
The official said the delimitation committees appointed by the ECP have completed the exercise as per the Delimitation Act and there was no reason to reject the delimitations. Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) had raised concerns over provisional results of the census data in Karachi and rural areas of Sindh and demanded re-verification of at least five percent data to ascertain the authenticity of the findings.
Sheikh Salahuddin, leader of MQM-P, told Business Recorder that his party had filed a petition in the Supreme Court on the results of the census after registering a protest at other fora including the Parliament, but to no avail. He said that in all high-level meetings with the government they were told not to push the census controversy as this would delay the general elections. "We are quiet now and let's see if the elections are held on time," he said.
No PPP representative could be reached for comments on the issue despite repeated attempts.
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