Petition filed in Supreme Court: MQM seeks formation of census blocks as per population

Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan's (MQM-P) Chief Farooq Sattar on Monday filed a petition in Supreme Court's (SC) Karachi Registry to constitute census blocks as per rise in population. Farooq Sattar expressed grave concerns over current census blocks.
According to details, the petition urges the SC to declare current census blocks annul and to carry out head count in supervision of army.
The petition further states population of Pakistan's financial hub Karachi has swelled significantly since 1998 but contrary to that the Sindh government has reduced census blocks.
Sattar accused the Sindh government of displaying population of Sindh's inner cities hundreds times more than actually residing there.
Census blocks should be increased in accordance with increase in population to ensure fair head count, articulated Sattar.
Pakistan will conduct its first census in 19 years in March, the statistics bureau announced, hoping to end years of wrangling by politicians concerned about how a survey would affect the makeup of their local electorates.
Changes could be significant in a country where 60 per cent of the population is under the age of 30.
In 2015, the World Bank estimated Pakistan's population at 188.9 million but the country still uses the official 1998 figure of 134.7 million. The population has exploded since its first census in 1951, when it had 33.8 million inhabitants.
Political leaders across the country have voiced concerns about the census, fearing a loss of influence from any changes in provincial demographics.
Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa said the Pakistani army had been drafted in to provide security and ensure there was no harassment of officials.
Electoral seats in Pakistan's parliament are assigned using population density data, and with rural populations fluctuating due to urbanisation, powerful feudal landlords and political families fear losing influence in Islamabad.
"Some regions are over-represented in the parliament and the political elite are wary of the census because it changes the voting pattern, changes the representation in the parliament," said Shahid Faiz, chief executive of Free and Fair Election Network, an organisation collecting electoral data.
Bajwa said 200,000 military personnel would assist civilian counters to complete the 70-day data-gathering campaign, which will start on March 15.
Originally scheduled for March, 2016, the census was postponed due to the unavailability of army personnel to oversee security.
The United Nations Population Fund will assign international observers to oversee the administration of the census.