A gentleman who is “a freelance researcher with special interest in demographic and societal changes in Pakistan” in his long piece carried by this paper last Sunday has posed a rhetorical question: who’s afraid of the census? And has himself answered: it’s Punjab. Good question but poor answer, one must say.

“The new population count may well result in the reduction of Punjab’s seats in the National Assembly parliament, transferring them to another federating unit. The census may also have an impact on jobs,” he asserts. “Another federating unit” seems naturally to be his home province which is not Punjab, one may guess. The reasons he advances fall like ninepins when put under scrutiny. According to him, the provinces, other than Punjab, have had not only higher population growth rate but also have attracted or facilitated increased internal migration. He bases his claim on two things. One: “in the previous census as lower per annum growth rate-- in Punjab 2.64pc than in Sindh [2.80pc]”.Two: “the 2011 housing consensus--”. The trend witnessed in the previous census 1998, he tends to believe, continues.

“Population has of course been Punjab’s claim to the lion’s share of power and resources. With the province witnessing enormous social and economic changes over the last 18 years, its population growth rate has consequently slowed down,” he argues. Well, the researcher has put the logic on its head. A province having the lion’s share of power and resources that has seen, in relative terms, political stability, economic growth, uptick in business activities, better governance, foreign investment is bound to attract more internal migrants, even expats. Internal migration, coupled with annual growth rate, would cause a swell of population.

A tour of Punjab can give scholars an empirical insight into what is happening on the ground if they care to leave their ivory tower. One can see very visible signs of internal migration in the northern, central, western and southern parts of Punjab. Most of the migrants are Pashtun of all classes. One can also discern a number of Baloch in the Punjab’s peripheral areas adjacent to Baluchistan. So much so that cultural and linguistic landscape of Lahore’s Walled City is steadily but gradually changing where you see Punjabis who have smattering of Pashto and Pashtuns with smattering of Punjabi interacting with one another. Use of pidgin as a tool of communication is quite amusing. Secondly, Punjab’s working class, compared with the workers in other provinces, may have a sort of pecuniary advantage but they are still indigent with all their old sociocultural habits of raising large families under the illusion that sheer weight of number can safeguard their economic future.

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Now let us take “the 2011 housing census” argument. “The fears are quite palpable in the corridors of power in Punjab: its population percentage share might well drop if the contested figures, posted after the 2011 housing census, are taken into account. The pitfall, however, is that the 2011 census has already drawn criticism from various quarters for massive inaccuracies,” writes the author. He demolishes, in no time, what he builds. Housing census figures are contested, various quarters have already criticised the census, and there have been massive inaccuracies. Can anyone, in his senses, accept the results of such a housing census? Can one build their case on such flimsy grounds?

The writer does and expects us to accept what ensues from it. He seems to be more concerned with Punjab bashing than weighing the pros and cons of census. Census is a serious exercise that would have far-reaching economic, political and cultural implications for our polity. In a complex and diverse society such as ours, the head count may prove to be a powder keg of unmanageable tensions. Hence it mustn’t be trifled with. Fudged figures and convoluted logic will land us nowhere. Intellectual honesty demands that our researchers should call a spade a spade in order to have correct data analysis of the issue in question.

In the case of pending census, when we starch the veneer of the researcher’s seemingly academic analysis, we can clearly see his thinly concealed animosity towards Punjab which, to the chagrin of many, enjoys a position of importance in our body politic due to a host of natural and historical factors. The natural factors include geography, vast plains, rivers and fertility of soil, to name a few. And some of the historical factors that have shaped the people’s psyche and their passionately open attitude are comings and goings of diverse people, intermingling of different races and cultures, acceptance of new ideas and cultural practices resulting in pluralism that makes Punjab’s people intellectually rich and least xenophobic in our part of the world. Punjab’s dominant role isn’t something exceptional. Just look across the border. Whosoever wins Uttar Pradesh (UP) rules India. Do we need to cut the size of a taller member of our family in order to be of equal height? That would obviously be unjust and inequitable. While addressing a problem we should not make the mistake of creating a bigger one.

So Punjab is not afraid of census. We hear, on the contrary, the rumblings of political discontent in other federating units. The Baloch leadership has publically asked the federation to defer the census till such times that Afghan refugees are sent back to their homes from Balochistan. The census, they justifiably fear, can reduce Baloch and Brahvis into a minority in their homeland if Pashtun nationalists successfully maneuver to get Afghan refugees registered as Pakistani nationals on the basis of fake identity papers. Sindhi and Muhajir leaders continue to drop clangers while vying with each other to get the headcount of existent and non-existent members of their respective communities registered through means fair and foul. Hence it’s imperative that state holds census without letting its guard down in a manner that puts all the stakeholders at their ease.