PESHAWAR: A citizen has moved the Peshawar High Court against the 2017 census in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including tribal districts, insisting that majority of the residents were not present in the erstwhile Fata due to displacement and economic reasons.

In the petition, Mohammad Jawed Iqbal requested the court to declare illegal and without proper procedure the holding of the National Census, 2017, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in general and tribal districts in particular, saying the former Fata faced hostile situation due to war on terrorism launched by the security forces at that time with around 80 per cent of the local population of those areas had left their homes as displaced persons.

He said neither the conditions were conducive for a fair census in 2017 nor did the government take appropriate measures to reach a fair and just conclusion with regard to the counting of the residents in particular areas of the province.

The respondents in the petition filed through advocate Malik Mohammad Ajmal Khan were the Federation of Pakistan through secretary of the establishment division, Council of Common Interest chairman, secretaries of the planning and development and finance divisions, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics chairman, Geological Survey of Pakistan director general, KP chief secretary, and secretaries of the KP Board of Revenue, local government and finance departments.

The petitioner said the 2017 census had also become controversial due to its repeated rejection by the province of Sindh in the meetings of the CCI, a constitutional body.

He contended that in the absence of a fair census, the implementation of Articles 153 and 154 of the Constitution, which dealt with the CCI and its rules and procedures, was not possible and thus, leaving negative impact on the interest of the province.

The petitioner said according to the controversial census, the population of the settled districts of KP was 30.5 million and that of tribal districts five million taking the total population of the province to 35.5 million, which was 17 per cent of the total population of the country.

He requested the court to direct the planning and development ministry and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to take into account the residents left for other parts of the country or overseas to earn a livelihood as well as the women female population through female staff as they usually were deprived due to local traditions.

The petitioner said the displacement factor of people due to war on terrorism or economic reasons should also be considered.

He contended that the census had direct impact on Article 51 of the Constitution, which provided for the number of seats of a province in the National Assembly on the basis of population, and on Article 160 dealing with the National Finance Commission.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2022