HYDERABAD: Barrister Zamir Ghumro, a legal expert, has termed announcement of census by the federal government ‘unconstitutional’ arguing that the General Statistics (Reorganisation) Act, 2011 is in direct conflict with the Constitution and even tantamount to subverting it. He said that Article 6 could be invoked for enactment of the Act against whosoever had done it.

Delivering a lecture on ‘Sindh’s demography and census after the 18th amendment’, organised by Hyderabad Union of Journalists (Butt group) at the local press club on Saturday, he referred to various articles to explain the census dynamics in the context of Sindh and as to how it could affect provincial demography. He said that the census questionnaire has a box ‘language’ which, he said, was a trick that could potentially foment polarisation in communities.

He said that the Act was unacceptable unless amended to replace ‘federal government’ with the ‘Council of Common Interests (CCI)’ “which is now responsible to hold census after the 18th amendment.”

“The Centre has nothing to do with census as it is provinces which have to hold it through CCI by creating authorities like the Gwadar Port Authority that is domain of the CCI,” he added.

Mr Ghumro said that nowhere it was the Constitution which provided distribution of resources on the basis of population if Article 160 is read carefully; yet resources are being distributed on a population basis in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award by the federal government which was unconstitutional.

“All resources like oil, gas and minerals are with provinces. The Act that is in conflict with the Constitution. Even Article 6 can be applied on its enactment and against whosoever is responsible,” he said.

“The Act is tantamount to subverting or suspending the Constitution the way a military dictator usurps powers of elected governments. In case of census, the prime minister tramples over the authority of provinces,” he argued.

The Centre-provinces relation is of coordinating nature, and not subordination. In Balochistan, chief minister is chairman of the Gwadar Port Authority and in Sindh’s case, dynamics are different. Federal government cannot do any planning for any department/subject that is with province. Why federation does not create authorities to hold census the way the Gwadar Port Authority is set up?

Barrister Ghumro said that the central government’s executive authority was subject to Constitution.

Even the planning commission is unconstitutional as the National Economic Council (NEC) has to coordinate between provinces, according to him.

“The box ‘language’ in the census questionnaire is a trick that reflects ethnic mindset of the federal government, which wants to affect demography of provinces. The census announcement is an attack on Sindh,” he said.

The legal expert recalled that the 1997 landmark judgement given by the Supreme Court called for replacing words ‘federal government’ with ‘CCI’ in the Wapda Act. The Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz failed to set up a federal constitutional court through the 18th amendment as was pledged under the Charter of Democracy evolved by them.

He urged the federal government to withdraw announcement of census and empower CCI for the job and then ask the provinces to prepare a questionnaire for census.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2016