PESHAWAR, May 15: There is little likelihood of the forthcoming general census turning up accurate data of the population in the disturbed Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
Official sources say that the security situation would preclude enumerators from counting the houses, and the inmates, in the conflict-ridden regions of Fata.Last month, people irritated by frequent US drone attacks prevented the census staff from doing their work in areas like Madakhel tehsil of North Waziristan Agency, they recalled. The Population Census Organisation started house counting across the country on April 5 and the population census is likely to begin in August or early September. An official told Dawn that enumerators could not get access to some areas in Fata including Toor Chappar in Frontier Region of Kohat, two tehsils of Mohmand Agency and parts of Orakzai Agency to conduct house listing. practice.
Security forces have been conducting operations against militants in Safi and Baizai tehsils of Mohmand and upper tehsil of Orakzai Agency due to which house listing was postponed there.
“It was very risky for the enumerators to work in the embattled areas,” said the official, adding that the process could be conducted when normalcy returned. In rest of the agencies in Fata, the house listing exercise had been completed, he said.
He said that the process had also been postponed in few localities of Hangu district and some hard areas of Mansehra district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Before starting the process, authorities had declared three tribal agencies -- Kurram, Khyber and South Waziristan -- as “grey area” because of the bad security situation. It was decided that security forces would oversee the census process in these areas. According to reports, in Bajaur Agency the census staff also could not conduct enumeration in Chamarkand tehsil, parts of Nawagai, Mamond and Salarzai tehsils. These areas have not been cleared of militants.
The angry tribesmen of Madakhel tehsil in North Waziristan had decided that they would not cooperate with the officials to conduct house listing. They said that they would not take part in census unless the government stopped drone attacks in their area. Similarly, people in Mohmand Agency have reservations over the house listing and asked government to withhold the exercise till completion of military operation. Few days ago a jirga organised by the Mohmand Welfare Organisation demanded of the government to suspend house listing.
Tribal people had also expressed reservations over the population census report of 1998 in which total population of Fata was shown 3.18 million. Former governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had also disputed the census report.
The organisation president Mir Afzal Mohmand told Dawn that enumerators had completed formalities but they could not make accurate lists in some areas because of security situation. He said that the process should be conducted after completion of army operation and return of internally displaced persons to their homes. Over one million tribal populations has been displaced owing to militancy and violence. He said that Mohmand Agency, having a single seat in National Assembly, would not increase its representation in the lower house of the parliament when fresh de-limitation of constituencies was carried out on the basis of 2011 census.