ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Tuesday asked the statistics division to notify provisional census results at the earliest amidst fears that lingering controversy over delimitation could lead to a delay in holding of elections.

The committee, headed by Senator Mohsin Aziz, visited the Statistics House along with other senators to ascertain the latest position of the census results.

Former chief census commissioner Asif Bajwa — who was re-appointed as chief consultant on census — briefed the senators on the process and compilation of results.

Calls for parliamentary probe into authenticity of the results

Most legislators, especially those from Sindh, have raised questions over the authenticity of the provisional results and demanded re-census in areas like Karachi.

During the meeting, Senator Nasreen Jalil called for re-census in Karachi, saying that the results would have a deep impact on resource distribution among provinces under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.

A similar demand came from Senator Sherry Rehman who argued that there was no counter check or acknowledgement slip as part of the survey forms. She said in the absence of proper check, and balance, the results were controversial.

The chairman of the committee then intervened and suggested the government constitute a parliamentary committee to help the Statistics House in addressing reservations about the census. The committee should have members from both the government and opposition, he added.

Senator Hari Ram echoed similar concerns on the authenticity of the census and said that since a large number of Hindus living in Sindh kept migrating in different seasons, the results were not accurate. He claimed that the census in Thar was conducted at a time when most of the occupants had migrated owing to drought in the area.

Chief Census Consultant Asif Bajwa told the committee that the Council of Common Interests had already given a deadline of May 2018 to complete the final census results, adding that the statistics bureau was determined to complete the process by April.

He reiterated his earlier stance that data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and the army had matched and there were no discrepancies. He said there was no issue in making the provisional data public but it required permission from quarters concerned, referring to the government.

The provincial governments had already constituted their technical committees to oversee and monitor the process of editing, coding, scanning and data processing at the PBS headquarters, said Mr Bajwa. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) secretariat has been requested to form a technical committee as well, he added.

The technical committees of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa showed their satisfaction over the steps taken by the PBS for smooth processing of the census data, he said. However, he added, Sindh showed some reservations on the conduct of census in the province.

Mr Bajwa said the PBS had already sent requests to the chairmen of the technical committees to share their reports submitted to provincial governments. On the basis of the reports, he said any shortcomings identified would be addressed subsequently.

Responding to Senator Sherry Rehman’s query, the chief consultant said the acknowledgement slip was not part of the plan designed by the technical committee. “We have requested the provincial government repeatedly to submit their report”, he maintained.

Mr Bajwa said that no area was left uncovered in the census as no region had boycotted or was exempted from the process.

The Senate committee also discussed the public petition number 1992 which was forwarded by PBS employees to the Senate chairman, pertaining to conversion of 1,045 temporary posts of PBS (PC wing) into permanent posts.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2017