Census anomaly

Published March 24, 2023

THE federal government has initiated the process of digital census and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has launched a digital portal where people may submit their data as part of the self-enumeration phase.

This is a good initiative to speed up the census process. However, when I tried to register myself, I found that it is not possible since the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) system is specific to the territory comprising the present-day Pakistan.

The Nadra database does not recognise that from 1947 till 1971 there used to be a part of this country, called the East Pakistan. My late father, belonging to Chakwal district, was posted in East Pakistan, where I was born at Rajshahi in 1964.

According to the Nadra database, I was born in ‘Bangladesh’ when the fact is that there was no such country existing in 1964.

When I went to register myself with the PBS self-enumeration portal and tried to fill in place of my birth, the country of my birth is being shown as Bangladesh. It is a strange paradox since anyone born before 1947 in, say, Lahore, will be treated to have been born in Pakistan and not British India. Why do I, and others like me, have to say we were born in Bangladesh, and not Pakistan?

It is time we learnt to respect historical facts, and that although geographical names have changed with time, we need to keep the records factually correct.

Ayub Malik
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2023

Opinion

Editorial

Uneasy calm
25 Jun, 2025

Uneasy calm

AFTER several days of dangerous escalation in the Middle East, matters seem to be cooling off. The US-Israeli...
Judicial extensions
25 Jun, 2025

Judicial extensions

WITH the public’s attention on the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East, the Judicial Commission of...
Asia on edge
25 Jun, 2025

Asia on edge

THE World Meteorological Organisation’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report lays bare the continent’s...
Agriculture concerns
24 Jun, 2025

Agriculture concerns

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif appears relieved that the IMF did not turn down Pakistan’s request to exempt...
OIC reaction
Updated 24 Jun, 2025

OIC reaction

The bare minimum OIC can do is to take firm action against the butchery of Palestinian people and resist regime change.
NEVs, but for whom?
24 Jun, 2025

NEVs, but for whom?

THE government’s policy gymnastics following Pakistan’s unexpectedly rapid adoption of rooftop solar have ...