Adnan Aamir
Quetta: Amid the growing fear that forthcoming census will turn Baloch into minority in Balochistan owing to inclusion of afghan refugees, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reportedly has no concrete plan to deal with problem of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) of Balochistan, learnt Balochistan Voices.
According to a source who wishes not to be named, claimed to have met Chief Commissioner Census Asif Bajwa last week to discuss issues related to census in Balochistan. Source said that Mr. Bajwa claimed to have made arrangements to exclude Afghan Refugees from census but He didn’t have any concrete plans for including IDPs of Balochistan in census.
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According to claims of Baloch nationalist parties, due to the ongoing security situation in Balochistan, hundreds of thousands of people have migrated from their homes and shifted to Sindh and Punjab. These people are mainly from Makran division and Dera Bugti district.
PBS was not available for a comment on this matter.
“Census exercise would kick off in Balochistan without giving any serious consideration to the IDPs issue which is going to be catastrophic,” alleged the source.
Agha Hassan Baloch, central spokesperson of BNP, told Balochistan Voices that they have demanded from PBS to add an additional column in census pro-forma to ascertain the number of IDPs of Balochistan. “We have made this demand from PBS and if they did not entertain our demand then we can file a write petition in Islamabad High Court,” added Mr. Baloch.
On 18th February, a grand census Jirga was convened in Quetta which demanded from federal government to ensure that foreigners are not included in the 6th population census starting from 15th March this year.
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