Presently, a lot is going on in the nation of Pakistan. Although there is of course always something happening, whether it involve the Taliban or other political news, these last two weeks have brought a lot of big news. Namely, the census has finally been initiated, the border with Afghanistan has been reopened, and secret military courts are being reinstated.
The Pakistani census has not been conducted since 1998, and now almost 20 years later, has been organized and was kicked off this Wednesday. Approximately 200,000 military troops were dispatched to accompany Census officials, including about 44,000 which would be conducting their own parallel census. The fact that the military has not been involved has not caused a huge amount of uproar among Pakistani citizens; rather, the main issue is that of whether or not Afghan refugees are being counted as part of the population. The decision was made that both registered and unregistered refugees will be counted in the census, and this angered many, especially in the region of Balochistan. Here, the ethnic Baloch population fears they will become a minority in their own area. Besides refugees, another issue has been brought up regarding the Pakistani state of Punjab. Although it is the most populated state, growth has slowed down in this region, meaning that it might lose some of its political influence. Additionally, in regards to Punjab especially, the Pakistani census does not have the option to mark off Sikhism as a religion. This was not mentioned in the Reuters article I posted, but I have been seeing this pop up in the Punjabi community. Considering the fact that Sikhism originated in what is modern day Pakistan, and that there is a considerable Sikh population in the most populous state in the nation, I find it incredulous that Pakistan is not offering that as an option to check off.
After a string of suicide attacks that killed about 130 people, Pakistan closed the Torkham and Chaman crossings on February 16. These crossings are key, as they account for $1.5 billion in trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. For two days earlier this month, the prime minister reopened the border to allow those with visas to cross and return home. I believe that the prime minister has been taking the right actions in regards to this issue; closing the border showed the people that efforts were being taken to protect them. By reopening the border, the prime minister is allowing people to return home and the small window they have shows that once again, national security, naturally, is at the forefront of his thought process.
The Pakistani government amended the constitution to reinstate secret military courts that try civilians charged with terrorism offences, something activists have warned will lead to human rights abuses. This action ties in with the rest in the sense that they all root back to the rise of nationalism that we’ve been seeing in not just Europe and the United States, but Asia as well. It will be interesting to see how this nationalistic movement progresses in this region in the future.