GHQ help needed for census, NA told
So all this past 15+ years, all the economic and social assumptions, that are needed for sound future planning was simply based on Lahori Logic and Madrassa MathISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Friday that the government could not go ahead with the planned census until the General Headquarters assured it of elaborate security and administrative arrangements required for the 18-day exercise.
Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Revenue Affairs Rana Mohammad Afzal Khan, who was responding to a MQM-sponsored calling-attention notice, said the government was in touch with the military leadership and it would become clear soon whether the exercise could be conducted as scheduled.
Only in a country like Pakistan !“As far as the civilian side is concerned all arrangements are in place to hold the census, but considering the precarious security situation in certain areas of the country, it cannot be held without deployment of military,” Mr Khan said.
Are they "afraid" to face the reality that the Aam Abduls are breeding like rabbits!Without specifying the number of security men needed, he said the entire country had been divided into 166,800 census blocks and each block would need one civilian and one soldier besides the military deployment required for security.
A defence analyst pointed out that at a time when the army was already stretched thin because of its engagement inside the country and also at borders, sparing such a large number of troops would not be easy.
Sheikh Salahuddin of the MQM criticised the parliamentary secretary.
In response, Mr Khan reverted to his earlier stance. He said that without military cover the government could not hold census. For one, he added, engagement of the army was a necessary requirement to provide credence to the exercise, and secondly the country was facing a fragile security situation. (euphemism for uprising in Baluchistan and collateral damage in FATA)
In the nation's best interest, why don't they consider outsourcing the whole exercise to an outside and independent third partyIn reply to a question as to how the government would conduct census in the strife-struck province of Balochistan, Mr Khan said that despite all inadequacies Balochistan was the first province to hold local government elections, and “I have no doubt, it will do the same to perform this national task”.
[/quote][/size][/color]Dr Fouzia Hameed, also of the MQM, asked whether any action had been taken against those responsible for faulty housing blocks made for the 2011 census which was later cancelled on technical grounds but not before the exercise had cost the exchequer an amount of Rs3 billion.
The parliamentary secretary gave a brief reply, “It’s the CCI’s decision to hold the census afresh”. [quote]It was in 1998 when the census was last held in the country.