DUBAI // Pakistani expatriates are angered by their government’s decision to exclude citizens overseas from next month’s census.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), citizens who have been abroad for more than six months will not be counted as part of the population.
One expatriate said the community would take the matter to the embassy in Abu Dhabi.
“I have spent 17 years in the UAE and work so hard to promote a positive image of Pakistan, yet we are not included in census? Does this mean we are not even citizens of Pakistan?” asked Ghias Ur Rehman, an engineer in Abu Dhabi.
Another who has lived in Dubai for more than a decade called the decision disgraceful.
“If these expats had other passports then I can understand the decision. Just imagine members of this 7 million-strong community going back to Pakistan and then finding themselves in the middle of nowhere as they are no more members of the household they belonged to before they left Pakistan,” said medical practitioner Dr Salman Hameed.
Ahmed Shaikhani, the Pakistan Business Council president, said such a decision would not sit well with expat communities elsewhere.
“It will be difficult for the government to deprive the overseas Pakistanis of their basic rights by not including them in the census,” he said. “No one can sideline and ignore the crucial role overseas Pakistanis have played in boosting the economic growth of Pakistan by regularly paying taxes and sending home remittances.”
Asif Bajwa, PBS’ chief statistician, dismissed the concerns.
“By definition census means counting the number of people at a given time within a country. If at that time someone is not available how could they be part of the census?”.
Not being included in the census does not mean that overseas Pakistanis have become stateless, he said. “Census does not take their right of being a Pakistani.”
Mr Bajwa said every household would be asked to mention family members who have been abroad for more than six months.
akhaishgi@thenational.ae
