PPP Punjab demands funds for census in next budget

http://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab has urged the government to follow the constitution and allocate funds in the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2014-15 for a new census.

This is stated by the PPP Punjab Secretary General and former provincial finance minister Tanveer Ashraf Qaira in a statement issued here on Sunday.

He called upon the government to allocate funds in the forthcoming budget this year which is the constitutional requirement as well. Underscoring the importance of census, he maintained that its criticality was established practice the world over for formulating Planning and Development strategy reflective of the right priorities to be undertaken for a certain period of time. He added without credible census it was not possible to prioritize the budget allocation for development programmes based on the needs of the local population. Development for development sake cannot be justified in the contemporary times due to the imperatives of social justice, he said.

Qaira also referred to the necessity of undertaking census because it would also help in the compilation of authentic voter lists for holding elections in the country either at local, provincial or national levels.

He also said that elections held after the census would measure up the representative character of the elected institutions and the governments in the true sense.