• Field operations to be carried out from Aug 1 to Aug 31
• Govt concedes over 100pc increase in trade deficit

ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed on Friday that the process for the first-ever digital census in the country has begun and field operations will be carried out from Aug 1 to Aug 31.

The house was told during the question hour that the field operation involving face-to-face interviews would be preceded by a pilot census to be conducted from May 15 to June 15.

Responding to a question, Minister of State for Parlia­mentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan said Rs16.884 billion had been spent on the national census in 2017.

About the formal objections to the exercise, he said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah made some observations on March 10, 2017 for smooth field operations of the census conducted that year.

In a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) held on Nov 13, 2017, it was decided to conduct third-party validation of one per cent of the census blocks after objections from Mr Shah. In the CCI meeting on Nov 24, the validation was increased to 5pc blocks.

He said Sindh’s chief minister opposed the approval of the final results of Census 2017 in the 45th meeting of the CCI held on April 12, 2021. However, on the recommendation of the cabinet committee, the results were approved by the CCI with the majority votes and directives were issued to start the process for the next census at the earliest while adopting best international practices and technology.

On May 29, 2021, Mr Shah while using his constitutional right under Article 154 (7) of the Constitution submitted a reference to the parliament on the CCI’s decision for its placement before a joint session. Accordingly, during the joint session held on Nov 17, a reference was considered wherein the CCI’s decision was approved with majority votes.

During the question hour on Friday, the government also conceded more than 100pc rise in trade deficit in the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of the previous year but insisted that the imports surged because of enhanced industrial and agricultural activity.

The parliamentary affairs minister told the house on behalf of the commerce minister that the main reason for higher imports had been an increase in imports of raw materials, food items, Covid-19 vaccines, telecommunications equipment and transportation goods, as well as the high prices of food-related goods in the international market.

He said the import of machinery and industrial raw material also increased substantially as a result of investment by the local industry. The sharp increase in the energy prices had resulted in an increase of petroleum product imports by 97.28pc. Similarly, the import of palm oil and sugar has also increased substantially.

To another question Mr Khan said on behalf of the finance ministry the inflationary pressure was a global phenomenon and pointed out that inflation in Iran was recorded at 35.7pc in November and 21.3pc in Turkey. “Pakistan is a net importer of food items, especially crude oil, edible oil, wheat, sugar and pulses. Hence, food inflation is not a domestic phenomenon,” a written reply to the question said.

It said the present government had made tough decisions of upward adjustment in overdue gas and electricity prices, market-based exchange rate adjustments, etc. to correct macroeconomic imbalances.

Barbs continued to fly in the Senate with members from both sides of the aisle holding each other responsible for the country’s economic dependence.

The opposition senators rejec­ted the Finance Supplementary Bill 2021 and described it as the economic murder of the masses, while the treasury members strongly defended the bill.

Senator Mushtaq Ahmad of Jamaat-i-Islami said the mini-budget would bring about a tsunami of price hikes that would take many more Pakistanis below the poverty line and render a large number of people jobless and homeless. He warned that the crime rate would also go up and termed the SBP amendment bill as an instrument of surrender to mortgage country’s sovereignty with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “People will take revenge for this economic terrorism against them one day,” he said.

Senator Ejaz Chaudhry blamed the past PML-N and PPP governments for the country’s economic woes and wondered if anyone serving a jail term had been given the kind of relief Nawaz Sharif received from the courts for his treatment, for which he promised to return to the country in eight weeks. “Convicted persons are not even allowed to take part in the funeral of their loved ones,” he noted.

He agreed with a suggestion by Senator Rukhsana Zuberi that legislators should adopt austerity and the senators should stop taking concessions until the life of the common man changed for the better.

“Are we all ready to say, ‘enough is enough’, as Brazil said to the IMF? Why do we forget that both PPP and PML-N went to the IMF 15 times and the dictators too approached the IMF, and when we do so, hue and cry is raised? It is the economic mess left by them that forces us to take loans,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2022