ISLAMABAD: Serious flaws in the House Listing Census-2011 conducted by the Population Census Organisation have put the already delayed sixth population census in the doldrums.
Moreover, the faulty house listing, a mandatory exercise before a population census, has cast serious doubts over the ongoing registration of voters by the Election Commission of Pakistan and verification of bogus voters by the National Database and Registration Authority.
In its Aug 27 meeting, the Council of Common Interests had expressed reservations over the outcome of the house listing exercise, effectively putting a stop to the national population census that has already been delayed by three years. It was due in 2008.
A senior official at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat confirmed that the house listing census had been deferred after serious differences of opinion had emerged at the CCI meeting. On Sept 13, the ECP briefed the representatives of political parties on its efforts to ensure transparency in future elections.
Sources told Dawn that the PML-N delegation raised objections and sought clarifications during the briefing when a slide based on the house listing census showed an 84 per cent increase in the households in Sindh from 1998 to 2011 as compared to only 32 per cent increase in Punjab.
Hyderabad, Karachi, Jacobabad and Jamshoro districts recorded 129 per cent, 114 per cent, 111 per cent and 102 per cent increase while Lahore district showed only 0.94 per cent growth in its households.
The PML-N has written a letter to the ECP secretary and sought certain remedial measures.
MNA Anusha Rahman, who was part of PML-N’s delegation at the ECP briefing, alleged that a number of serious anomalies had been noticed in the house listing census. The letter said the flaws in the exercise needed earliest possible attention to ensure free and fair elections in the country.
It said that as per the ECP guidelines, the preliminary electoral rolls would be prepared by Nadra on the basis of new block codes registered in house listing census, 2011. In that respect, the party has certain observations.
One, that the final electoral rolls, 2007, as well as Nadra CNIC database, are based on 1998 census and its blocks, 92 per cent of which are very much verifiable, but, the house listing census, 2011, has generated extensive variances leading to an overall rejection ratio of 38 per cent.
Second, the creation of new census block codes has rendered both databases i.e. final electoral rolls, 2007 and CNIC database mutually incompatible.
The above concerns, especially the reported variation from 92 per cent verifications based on 1998 census to an alarming 38 per cent rejection ratio when based on house listing census, 2011, tend to cast dark shadow over the pursuit of transparency that is likely to rob the entire electoral process of its credibility, the letter said.
It also referred to the Aug 27 meeting of the CCI that had expressed reservations about the authenticity and correctness of the house listing census, to defer further consideration of the proposals submitted by the statistics division for sixth population and housing census, and to decide in favour of status quo.
The PML-N has asked the ECP to consider and take up preparation of the new draft electoral rolls based on the 1998 census and its blocks, instead of new house listing census.
“We have been assured by Nadra that using 1998 census blocks will actually expedite the process of door-to-door verification since the final electoral roll, 2007, was based on it as well,” the letter concluded.
An official of the statistics division said the division had submitted its findings to the CCI and waiting for directions.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.