Islamabad-The Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that National Finance Commission (NFC) award should not be linked with population as it is akin to incentivizing the population growth of the provinces.
The minister was talking to media as the government extended the completion date of the 7th Census for the 5th time to May 15. Talking to media following a briefing session organized by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for the chief ministers, federal ministers, and members Parliament regarding 7th Population and Housing Census, Ahsan Iqbal said that the government will also invite Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to participate in the briefing on the census. PTI had started all this(census) work, the minister said in reply to a query. The briefing session was attended by the Chief Ministers, Federal Ministers, Members of Parliaments regarding 7th Population and Housing Census, 1st ever Digital Census.
The objective of briefing was to apprise the Members about the process and progress of the census as well as to get their feedback to allay their concerns for ensuring complete coverage, transparency, wider acceptability and attain the confidence.
In reply to another query, the minister said that “We should not link NFC with population”. Linking NFC with population growth is a system of giving incentives to the provinces for increasing population, he added.
Ahsan Iqbal said that the political parties and provincial governments had been asked to identify undercount or overcount in the census process.
Ashan categorically stated that there was no prejudice against any region, province or city.
The Chief Census Commissioner Dr. Naeemuz Zafar gave detailed presentation on the background, process, methodology as well various milestones achieved for the conduct of the census and role of various stakeholders. He also shared the progress of the census made till now as well as population counted till now.
Some of the members highlighted their concerns relating to under coverage in some area. Ahsan Iqbal, assured the utmost efforts will be made to ensure the complete coverage and urged provincial government to play their vital role for early completion of the census by ensuring complete coverage. He highlighted that with the help of this system under and over reporting issues were diagnosed on instant basis for their redressal during the field operation. The participants were informed that how PBS used Digital System for immediate decision making to identify block with low coverage and shared the lists of blocks with under enumeration, leftover structures in high rise buildings, one member/ two member household and the blocks with negative growth rate as compared to 2017.
PBS for facilitation of Provincial governments and in order to ensure complete coverage , deputed teams from H/Q in big cities like Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Hyderabad etc. which resulted in increase of over 8 million population in already completed blocks with inclusion of 423189 households. The glaring increase observed in Karachi with 2.28 million and Lahore 1.08 million through the PBS proactive initiative. All the stakeholders emphasized to continue the sharing of data for assurance of complete Coverage.
The Chief Census Commissioner shared the population count of the 7th Population and Housing Census of Pakistan with the participants as well as share the issues faced during field operation. He briefed that census field operation is still continue and uptill now about 40 Million structures have been geo tagged and over 237.5 Million person have been counted across the country till now. The province wise population counted till to date is over 116 Million in Punjab, 54 Million in Sindh, 39 Million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 19.7 Million in Balochistan.
All participants recommended to extend the field enumeration for 15 days for complete coverage and address the concerns of the stakeholders. It was agreed in principle to extend the field operation date but the modalities will be finalized in the meeting under the Chair of Minister for PD&SI with Chief Secretaries scheduled to be held on (Saturday) 29th April, 2023.
Meanwhile talking to media Jamat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that half of Hyderabad and half of Karachi are not yet counted. He said that household census has not been done yet.
He alleged that provincial machinery is being used to reduce our seats. In Larkana, the population has been increased by 25 to 27 percent, he added.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that seats of rural areas have been increased by reducing the seats of Karachi. “If our words are not accepted, then there will be a protest,” Hafiz Naeem warned.
Hafiz Naeemur Rahman said that political parties are not raising voice for Karachi due to politics.