No conspiracy to modify Karachi, Lahore’s census results, SHC told

There was no conspiracy to modify the census results of Karachi and Lahore, and the growth rate of both cities is very much in line with each other, the census commissioner for the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) informed the Sindh High Court on Tuesday.

Filing comments in response to a petition against the results of the national census which concluded earlier this year, the bureau’s census commissioner stated that the provincial share of the total population shows variation from the 1998 census.

Regarding the comparison between population of Karachi and Lahore, the commissioner said that the Punjab government had declared the entire Lahore district an urban area, as a result, the boundaries of Lahore city were extended to the entire district, including two union councils of Kasur. On the other hand, Sindh government has not extended Karachi’s city boundaries for a long time, except converting seven dehs into urban areas.

According to the official, keeping in view the current position of urban localities in both cities, the percentage increase is normal – the population of Karachi city is 14,910,350 in 2017 compared to 9,339,023 in 1998, showing an increase of 59.6 percent while the population of Lahore is 11,126,285 in 2017 compared to 5,143,495 in 1998, showing an increase of 116.3 percent. 

He added that the population of Lahore when the older pre-2015 boundaries are considered computes to about 8.123 million showing an increase of 57.93 percent.

The official stated that if the census results are computed taking into account pre-2015 Lahore boundaries, it may be considered that the growth rate of Lahore city is very much in line with growth in Karachi and there was no conspiracy to modify the results.

He further said the population of Sindh, including Karachi city, has increased as compared to Punjab, including Lahore city, adding that the annual average growth rate of Sindh remained 2.41 percent as compared to Punjab which remained 2.13 percent annually on average during 1998-2017.

The census commissioner further submitted that there was a decline in the population growth rate at a national level in Punjab and Sindh provinces, while an increase has been observed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

According to the commissioner, a nominal increase in the national share has been observed for Sindh at 23.05 percent in 2017 as compared to 23 percent in 1998, however, a significant decline has been observed in the national population share of Punjab from 55.63 percent in 1998 to 52.95 percent in the 2017 census.

The official denied that any action was contemplated to enhance the population of any province in order to give it more political power, adding that in fact the Punjab’s share of the national population has gone down, effectively reducing its seats in the National Assembly.

He added that field operation of the census was conducted by the provincial and district administration and all of its exercises were done in a fair manner with ample opportunity given to the population to record their grievances about non-counting. All complaints received were expeditiously attended to and resolved, he stated. 

He submitted that the provisional results were submitted to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in a meeting where the chief ministers of all provinces were present and none of them objected to the results, which were made publicly available on the CCI’s orders. 

In September, Pakistan Qaumi Movement’s chief Iqbal Kazmi had challenged the results in the SHC through a petition, contending that the national census had to be conducted through the CCI and the PBS was just supposed to have a role in it. 

He had submitted that the census results were manipulated to depict a lower population count in Sindh and a higher one in Punjab. This move, the petition stated, was driven by the aim to increase the number of electoral constituencies in Punjab.

Kazmi prayed the court to declare the census results ultra vires to Article 70(4) of the Constitution and to issue directives for the process to be redone under the supervision of a judicial commission. 

The petitioner also requested that the CCI be declared as the institution responsible for conducting the national housing and population census and that the recommendations of the CCI’s members be considered for the new count.  

The court after taking the report of the census commissioner on record on Tuesday directed the other respondents to file their replies on the next date of hearing.