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Parameters of the national census

Despite many contradictions and opposition from vested quarters, the national census, due since 1991, has finally taken place. While the government vacillated till the last minute due to pressure from various quarters, psychologically this is a giant step for Pakistan. Lack of a population count gave an impression of a free-for-all wild west type society that was gradually becoming unmanageable in the Somalia-Rwanda sense. Traditionally a crossroads for humanity in the region, Pakistan’s fertile land and economic potential has become a haven for migrants, not the least being the Muslims of India, who battered by years of brutality at worst and benign neglect at best, have been streaming to Pakistan in more or less a constant flow. Because of the Afghan War and its long duration, most of the Afghans who came as refugees have now become Pakistanis by virtue of corrupt documentation. The National Identity Card (NIC) which was supposed to deter migrants has become the easiest thing to acquire, a Pakistani passport follows even more easily. The net result is that migrants are mostly registered as Pakistanis and locals, on the other hand, may or may not be registered at all. This has led to lop-sided documentation having no basis to actual reality.

Why is the census necessary? To start with unless the leaders of the country know exactly what the population is and how they are located and/or dispersed around the country, how can they manage the nation, what to talk about taking socio-economic initiatives and the planning of development activity? Further in this age of insecurity, it is very necessary to have correct documentation of the inhabitants of dwellings in order to deny terrorists safe houses. Whether one is planning anything in the health, education, telecommunications, transportation, welfare sectors, etc, without actual data nothing is possible because at best planning is made on rough estimates. Not the least is the factor of revenue collection, at the moment less than 1% of the population is paying direct taxes, once enumerated, the tax-paying population will increase manifold. Over the past 50 years, the rural majority has been transformed into an urban majority, this fact has to be reflected in democracy and governance thereof. At the present time the rule of the minority over the majority is a travesty of both democracy and justice.

Who does not want census? To start with a majority of our present-day politicians, particularly from the rural area do not want a population count. The reason is not difficult to discern, they lose their majority status and the percs of authority that goes with it. At the moment by virtue of the last population count, they form the majority of parliamentarians who legislate and enact laws, laws that they themselves do not recognize but others are forced to accept. Many of the ills afflicting our society will go with it as the inordinate influence they command over the law enforcing agencies diminish. Similarly, given the ethnic composition of our nation the present ruling elite in at least two of the Provinces, Balochistan and Sindh, do not want it as they feel that the ethnic Baloch and Sindhi respectively, will become minorities in their own Provinces. Constant change has historical basis and one cannot turn a blind eye to the evolution of nature. The people who should pay taxes but don’t may be deeply affected by the census operation because having been documented they will be much more easily drawn into the tax net. This exercise will draw in rural and urban landowners to a great extent, for the first time agriculture tax is liable to be imposed realistically. Another great service will be the clear delineation of ownership, most of the cases in the courts of law stem from blurred ownership lines. One major faction opposed to census will be criminals who will fear quick location of their safe houses as police officers at the Police Stations (Thana) have computerized information about the inhabitants in their area available at their finger tips. Political parties that rely on militants to enforce their fiat will also be unhappy with this exercise. Given all this animosity, the government did well to mobilize almost one-third of the Army to support the Census Operation, otherwise it would have ended up as an exercise in futility. The Army’s presence and counter-check has been a great restraint on attempted fraud, notwithstanding the posture of Ms Benazir whose ethnic majority in Sindh is set to become a minority. The census being conducted in a peaceful and organized manner is a great feather in the Army’s cap, a national duty that simply had to be done.

It is a real wonder how this country has been managed till date with virtually imaginary statistics. How can planners across the board really organize their initiatives without real facts and figures? In this modern age, these facts and figures have to be available in real time i.e at the touch of a finger on the computer. For that a whole national database has to be completed. For this purpose the government has set up a National Database Organization (NDO) headed by a serving major general with a known aptitude for such a task. The NDO now has a gigantic task before it, first to sift through the many questions in the Census Forms and transfer the answers into computer language. This exercise of keying in data will take not less than 2-3 years, so will the organization of terminals down to the district level. As the designated DG NDO states, it is for the government to decide who will have access to such information, whether it will be limited to government agencies or whether private parties cleared by the government that can tap into the database. Because of the advances in computer hacking, the NDO will be hard put to maintain computer security and data may well be available to those who want to profit illegally from it. As such the NDO will have to restrict the acquirement of personal data of individuals so that it is only available on request.

This brings us to the question of invasion of privacy. Privacy is guaranteed to the individual under the constitution but with the national database available, the government may become the greatest offender in invading the guaranteed right of the individual for privacy. This may make the government into virtually a “big brother”, manipulating and thus controlling the destinies of the citizens. There is dire need for enacting such laws that will forbid the government from using personal information about the individual for ulterior motives. Of course if the individual is involved in activity that is criminal or anti-state that would be reason enough but a mechanism must be put in place to obtain a court order otherwise governments in Third World countries are likely to target the opposition out of a political vendetta.

In every field of governance data is needed, nothing is more disturbing to Pakistan than illegal immigration. This artificial influx tends to create schisms that lead to disunity. For a country on the verge of disintegrating psychologically, if not physically, the national census provides a modicum of cohesion. With the availability of raw data within 5-6 months, the entire spectrum of country management will undergo a radical change for the better. As such the national census may be labelled not only as a welcome and extremely useful exercise, but one of vital importance to the continued existence of the nation as a viable entity.

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