KARACHI: Reacting to the chief census commissioner’s refusal of the Sindh government’s demand to hand over census record to it, a provincial minister on Tuesday warned that such “stubborn” behaviour of the authorities in Islamabad could spark public protests across Sindh.

“People in Sindh could take to the streets and protest if such record regarding the recent population count in the province [is] not provided to us,” said Sindh Law Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar while speaking to reporters at his office. Officials said Mr Lanjar had led a delegation of the provincial government to hold a meeting with senior authorities in the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in Islamabad vis-à-vis Sindh’s reservations about the population figures.

“They [PBS] had promised to share certain facts and figures with the Sindh government during the meeting. But, the census chief suddenly refused to [deliver on] that promise,” claimed a senior official in the provincial capital.

“The behaviour of the PBS towards the Sindh government is utterly deplorable,” said Minister Lanjar. He said the authorities in the province were exploring various avenues to verify the population count as disclosed by the census authorities.

“We have serious reservations over the census figures regarding Sindh,” said the minister.

“We have reason to believe that the federation has rigged those figures.” One option, apart from taking to the streets, was moving court, he added.

“The federal authorities’ consistent refusal to hand the census data to us as we have demanded creates more doubts over its credibility.

“It is the federal government’s responsibility to share those records with the provinces.”

The PML-N, he said, was exacting ‘revenge’ from the people of Sindh for not voting for it in the general elections.

“Sindh’s population, despite being much higher in number, has been shown smaller at the behest of Islamabad.

“Asif Bajwa [chief census commissioner] ... should know that he is a public servant and not a servant of anyone else,” said Mr Lanjar.

Referring to the census authorities’ statement that such sharing of data required amendment to the existing laws, Mr Lanjar described it as an excuse on the part of the relevant authorities to keep the provinces in the dark about true figures. “On the excuse of amending the laws, they just want to [deny] sharing the census record with Sindh.

“Such data is not like a letter from Qatar that could be stolen,” he quipped.

He said Sindh’s was a just demand for which it had written a letter to the relevant authorities in Islamabad yet “we are waiting for a reply”.

The minister said the Sindh authorities would raise the matter with the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in its coming meeting. “We have options, including moving court, if the matter is not settled in the CCI meeting.”

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2017