Count now: Nationalist parties to go on strike against delay in census

Sindh United Party announces province-wide protests on Mar 31

KARACHI: Sindh United Party (SUP), Jeay Sindh Mahaz and other nationalist parties have announced a province-wide strike on March 31 when they will protest the federal government’s decision to defer the census process across the country.

SUP chief Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, who is also the convener of the Sindh Census Monitoring Committee, held a press conference on Saturday in which he said that postponing the much-needed census process once again surmounts to a psychological attack on Sindh by the Centre.

The census process, which was going to be held in the country after a lapse of 18 years, was put off for an indefinite period recently after a meeting of the Council of Common Interest headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took the decision in view of the unavailability of 300,000 soldiers to perform security duties.



As usual, Punjab’s upper hand is seen in the CCI meeting and this is the reason why census has been postponed, claimed Jalal, who is a staunch critic of the largest province of the country. “Putting the census matter off the table for us [the nationalists] is the same as raising the Kalabagh Dam issue,” he said.

Shah said that if the government does not announce a date to hold the census even after the strike, the nationalist parties will then take the matter to the streets and stage a sit-in in every city of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2016.