ISLAMABAD: Statistics Minister Kamran Michael on Wednesday rejected reservations expressed by some political parties about the process and results of 6th Population and Housing Census 2017.
The minister was addressing a press conference here at Statistics House. He was flanked by Secretary Statistics Division Rukhsana Yasmin, Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa and other top officials of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
There were constitutional institutions that could be approached in case of any objection over the census process and results, the minister said while rejecting the doubts over results by some political parties belong to the Sindh province.
“Those having reservations must discuss the same in the parliament or raise their concerns at the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for their resolution,” he said. CCI’s recommendations for reforms, if any, would be followed, he added.
Michael said since all the provinces were represented by their chief ministers at the CCI, therefore, it was a constitutional forum for amicable resolution of disputes among them.
He said the parliament was another forum where such issues could be discussed. The parliament also referred issues to the CCI for resolution.
“If you have any reservations, come to the CCI,” the minister added.
Michael said the reason that there was not much difference in the population of Karachi and Lahore was that the Punjab government had declared the entire Lahore district as urban, while areas in two districts of Karachi were still classified as rural. He said provisional results were declared after the reconciliation of census data collected by the PBS and the army.
He said the PBS conducted the census in accordance with the boundaries notified by the provincial governments and did not violate any boundary. It was not the mandate of PBS to decide as to which areas were rural or urban.
The minister clarified that increase in the population of Quetta was due to the fact that Afghan refugees, who were housed in camps in 1998, had migrated to local areas, resulting in increased growth rate.
Talking about the upcoming elections, Michael said there was need for constitutional amendment to allow using the provisional results for elections.
He said as per the Constitution, only final and published results could be utilized for election process, however, if an amendment was made for using provisional results, it would resolve many problems. He said during the CCI meeting, the chief ministers were suggested to allow this amendment, who, however, responded that they would approach their respective political parties on the matter.
The country’s current total population has soared to over 207.744 million with an average annual growth rate of 2.4 percent from the calendar year 1998. This population number included 132,189,531 rural and 75,584,989 urban population, showing an overall population growth at 57 per cent during the period 1998-2017.
The figures recorded in the census also showed 2.23 percent growth in rural areas and 2.7 percent in urban areas during these years as the male population of the country at present stands at 106,449,322 with the female population at 101,314,780, and the population of transgender at 10,418.
Published in Daily Times, August 31st 2017.
