PPP wants digital census to be conducted fairly in Karachi

Expressing reservations about the newly started digital census in Karachi, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has demanded that the process to count the population of the city be conducted fairly and transparently.

The demand was made during a party meeting on Thursday, with PPP Karachi Division president and Sindh Labour and Education Minister Saeed Ghani in chair. The meeting agreed that it is the responsibility of every relevant quarter in Sindh that the population of the province is counted accurately. The PPP Karachi Division decided to establish a cell to receive complaints against the census drive.

Ghani said the census should be conducted fairly and transparently to determine the population of the province accurately. He said the delimitation of constituencies will be conducted validly after a fair census.

He pointed out that the financial share of a province in the National Finance Commission Award is determined on the basis of its population count. He recalled that the PPP had objected to the allegedly flawed census of 2018, raising the issue before the Council of Common Interests and other relevant forums.

He said the PPP should also be credited for the fresh census being conducted in the country only after five years instead of the stipulated period of 10 years. PPP Sindh General Secretary Senator Waqar Mehdi said that an awareness campaign should be conducted to let the people know about the benefits of the census drive. A special drive should be held to make household women know of the benefits of the census, he added.

PPP Karachi General Secretary Javed Nagori said that numerous complaints have been received over the past 24 hours that trained staff deployed for the purpose is not being used for conducting the census in the city. PPP office-bearers in Karachi’s districts should meet the respective deputy commissioners to convey these complaints, he added.

PPP leader Najmi Alam demanded that the federal government conduct a proper awareness campaign through the print, electronic and social media, and the cellular phone service about the new census drive. The meeting also decided that the PPP Shuhada public meeting will be held in District Malir on Monday.

Call for campaign

Dr Farooq Sattar on Thursday claimed that no political party is actively guiding the people of Karachi during the population census except the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

The MQM-P senior deputy convener said during a press conference that the political parties claiming to be loyal to the city should have come into action because it is impossible to give Karachi its rights without an accurate census.

However, he lamented, neither the Jamaat-e-Islami nor the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz seem to be serious about the population count in the city.

He said the Pakistan Peoples Party has nothing to do with any public issue. He added that all the blocks should be counted correctly, pointing out that there may be ulterior motives behind the undercounting of the population in 16,000 blocks of Karachi.

Sattar said that a day earlier his party had met the relevant government officers, the chief census commissioner, government ministers, and especially Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to conveyed their concerns.

He said that every person living in Karachi who belongs to any linguistic or religious unit should be counted. Complaints are coming from the District East office that the enumerators are being told not to count children below the age of five years, he added.

The MQM-P leader said the authorities concerned should make sure that the public have the option to check the final copy of the census questionnaire. He said that when the population of Karachi is recognised at national level, it should be ensured that the city’s population is recorded correctly in the census as well. He appealed to all the political parties to play their role in the census because only a joint strategy can give Karachi its rights.

Governor’s appeal

Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori on Thursday performed the launching of the 7th housing and population census drive in the province at a ceremony held at the Governor House.

Talking to media persons, he said valid and accurate population statistics should be available for the fair distribution of resources for the welfare of the people.

Tessori said it was imperative that the staff hired by the Bureau of Statistics for the census campaign should accurately count the population. He appealed to the people to fully cooperate with the census staff.

He said the National Database and Registration Authority should also be involved in the census drive. He told media persons that such an involvement would enable any person to verify the census data. He said reservations of the concerned quarters should be removed for ensuring a fair census drive.

The governor said that an inaccurate population count was one of the problematic national issues that had been persisting for the past 75 years.

Also speaking on the occasion, Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said the mass media should be used to raise public awareness about the census drive.

Provincial census commissioner Rafique Buriro said that this year a total of 43,838 blocks had been formed to conduct the fresh census campaign in Sindh, and last time the number of blocks was 38,999, showing an increase by 12 per cent.

He said the first phase of the census drive would continue till March 15, and the second phase would last from March 18 till April 1.