PESHAWAR, (MILLAT ONLINE/APP): The KPK Senior Minister for Local
Government and Rural Development Department, Inayatullah has urged the Federal Government to include details of the individuals and families of the overseas Pakistanis in the current census operation for their cumulative effect with their native districts and Province.
He said it will lead to transparency, fairness and credibility to this
significant national exercise of enumeration. He was presiding over a meeting convened to ponder over impending issues in the on-going census at Peshawar here Friday.
The meeting was attended by the Provincial Census Commissioner, Mumtaz
Ali Khan, Secretary Local Government Department, Syed Jamal Uddin Shah and Secretary Delimitation, Sajid Gul and others.
The meeting discussed the counting of overseas Pakistanis in their
native families and their cumulative effect on the total population of the District and Province.
The meeting was told that according to the instruction for filling the
census form, individuals out of the country for six months or more will be counted only and no further details will be asked.
Their number will not be included in the total number of households and
consequently their cumulative effect will not be taken in the total population of the District.
Inayatullah said that the census data not only provides a base for the
allocation of national and provincial assembly seats/constituencies but national and provincial resources are also distributed on the basis of these statistics.
He added that population has a very high weightage in the distribution
of resources on national forums like National Finance Commission (NFC) and Provincial Forums like Provincial Finance Commission (PFC).
He said non-inclusion of overseas Pakistanis in the census will have
serious implications for some of the poor and smaller provinces and districts. He pointed out that millions of inhabitants of this province are out of country specially, in Middle East for earning their livelihood and excluding them from counting within the native district/ province will result significant under estimation of the population.
On this occasion, Inayatullah directed the quarter concerned to prepare
a comprehensive report to be submitted to the Chief Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in this regard.
The provincial census commissioner assured the Senior Minister to take
steps for the redressel of grievances in this regard and will take up the issue with higher concerned authorities.