The Frontier Post

JUNE 10, 1998  FRIDAY

The census results

In what is surely a significant development, the government on Wednesday announced the provisional census results, which put Pakistan's population at 130.5 million. It was 64.2 million in 1981. The census, termed as the most authentic and fair ever conducted in the country by the finance minister, shows an increase in the proportion of Sindh's population from 22.6 percent to 23 percent. Karachi remains the country's biggest city with a population of 9.26 million. The government claims that the population growth rate has declined to 2.61 percent as opposed to 3.06 recorded in the 1981 census. The population of Punjab has risen from 47.2 million in 1981 to 72.5 million; but it now constitutes 55.6 percent of the national population compared to the previous 56.1 percent. The NWFP has gone up from 11 million in 1981 to 17.5 million now, while its growth rate has declined from 3.32 percent to 2.75 percent. In Balochistan, where the holding of census seemed an explosive exercise, the population has increased from 4.3 million to 6.5 million. Its growth rate has had a staggering fall: down to 2.42 percent from 7.09 percent. As far as the population of FATA is concerned, it shows an increase from 2.1 million to 3.1 million.
There is another worrisome dimension of the population trends: the census statistics show that now 67 percent people live in the rural areas, down from 71 percent in 1981. The proportion of urban population shows an increase from 28 percent to 32 percent. This means more problems for the society in the coming years. The urbanisation phenomenon, said to be the most pronounced in Sindh, will dent the country's already declining agricultural potential. It is highly discomforting that there are now 23 towns in Pakistan having a population in excess of 200,000. Lahore, incidentally, has a population of over five million. The PML government ought to be complimented for having successfully completed the politically charged census exercise. Some of the census results appear somewhat hard to believe, especially with regard to the growth rate. Until now, Pakistan was believed to be plagued with the highest birth rate in the world. How come this rate is now declining? Some analysts are bound to notice that the government has papered over the contentious issues like the composition of Sindh's population (Sindhi-Mohajir contradiction). Ditto for Balochistan, where the Baloch-Pashtun divide has become unsettling in recent years. And finally, the country will now be able to plan for the future on the basis of statistics. 

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