Jakkaran Musa
The census is being conducted in Pakistan after two decades.
Balochistan is almost half of Pakistan and there is no concept of planning and development or using the census data for any welfare programme. Half of Pakistan remained undeveloped and discriminated. At the end of the fiscal year, it was found that the Federal Government spent half of the budget. There was a classic case when the Federal Government wanted to construct a Youth Hostel in Quetta with a modest cost of Rs 80 million. The construction of youth hostel took 12 years as the Federal Government made allocation of a couple of millions on yearly basis. In the original plan, the youth hostel should have been constructed in 3 years’ time.
It is unfortunate that Balochistan might suffer the most in terms of resource allocation as the census might count the Afghan refugees residing in the province as citizens. This will mean the Balochs will have to compete with the refugees for seats at institutions, government offices and other aspects of life. In a decade or so, over one million Baloch population had migrated to Sindh and other area of the country as internally displaced persons and families due instability in different areas of Balochistan.
Mir Hasil Bizenjo, the chief of National Party and incumbent federal minister for Ports and shipping, in a recent press conference argued that a “census in Balochistan is unacceptable in the presence of refugees; it was the principled stand of his party that refugees, regardless of their ethnicity, should be sent back to their countries.” He further said that “this view was shared by other nationalist parties. “It is hoped that the federal and provincial governments will exclude Afghan refugees from the counting and will send the teams conducting the census to every nook and corner of Balochistan. In the presence of Afghan refugees, who had been settled in various areas of the province, conducting census would be injustice with the Baloch people undermining their legitimate national interests.
Likewise BNP in its central committee meeting held in Karachi decided that, “We will not accept the census in present circumstance and such an exercise is tantamount to turning the Baloch population into a minority in their own homeland.” Holding a fair census in Balochistan is difficult so that Balochistan should be spared from the fresh census as the Baloch people are not expecting a lion’s share from the Federal pool of resources nor any big change in representation of Balochistan to the Federal Parliament.
Writer is a student of International relations in Quaid e Azam University, Islamabad
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
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