Letter to planning minister: Sindh CM expresses reservations over census

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday wrote a letter to Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal, conveying his reservations over the census activity. Officials said the Sindh CM on Sunday conducted a review meeting at his office, where he found some irregularities in the census activities at talukas and tehsils and thus wrote a letter to the planning minister to express his reservations.

Meanwhile, responding to the CM’s letter, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal extended the date of the census till May 15, 2023, they added.

Officials said the letter written by the Sindh CM said, “It has come to my knowledge that in a meeting to review the progress of the field operations related to the ongoing digital census exercise 2023 held today, April 30, 2023, under your chairmanship, it has been conveyed that the census activity will immediately be closed in those talukas and tehsils where the population growth rate is higher than a certain benchmark has been recorded.”

“We have a strong reservation over this decision as the benchmarking is totally arbitrary and does not take into account the following facts. All districts and talukas do not grow at the same pace as there are multiple factors which alter the population growth in a particular district or taluka. Hence, it is wrong to judge the population growth of all the districts and talukas against a single universal benchmark. If such a benchmark was universally applicable, there would have been no need to conduct the census at all, as the population growth could have easily been calculated based on that benchmark,” the letter added.

The letter further said, “There are many blocks in almost all the districts of Sindh, which have still not been fully counted. Based on the above, it is strongly urged that the census activity should continue in all the districts of Sindh till each and every household and individual is accurately counted and the certificate to that effect is provided by the census district officer as per the requirement of the census operations. If the above reservation, in addition to reservations conveyed through my earlier letters on the subject are not addressed, then I am constrained to say that the census results will not be acceptable to the government and citizens of Sindh and will be outrightly rejected.”

Responding to the letter by the Sindh CM, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal ordered an extension in the field operations, while the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics also issued a notification that said, “In pursuance of the 12th meeting of the Census Monitoring Committee and on the recommendations of the provincial governments, the chief census commissioner and chief statistician has been pleased to approve an extension in the census field work for two weeks till May 15, 2023 for verification and coverage of the leftover structures and houses in the districts as per the attached list.”