‘Non-Sindhis and illegal immigrants shouldn't be counted as residents of Sindh’

Authorities finalise plans for census in Hyderabad

KARACHI: Amid unaddressed concerns about a decreased number of census blocks, transparency in the counting of illegal immigrants and temporary residents, authorities have finalised plans to embark on the sixth population and house census in Hyderabad.

The district, which is coping with a population explosion owing to progressively incessant influx of migrants from rural Sindh, Khyber-Paktunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), has been divided into 72 charges, 345 circles and 2,050 blocks.

A block consists of 200 to 250 houses and five to seven blocks make up a circle. A charge, the largest census limit in a district, comprises five to seven circles. So, as per the official estimate based on the census blocks, the number of houses in Hyderabad is estimated to be between 41,000 and 51,000.



According to official sources, some 3,550 personnel, including charge supervisors, circle supervisors, enumerators, army and police personnel and control room operators, will participate in the exercise. This includes 72 charge supervisors, 345 circle supervisors and 1,026 enumerators.

The district has been divided into four talukas - City, Latifabad, Qasimabad and Hyderabad Rural and Cantoment Board of Hyderabad, which falls in the administrative limits of City taluka.
An official source informed that less than the required number of transport vehicles and funds have been provided. Four buses, 247 vans, 167 pick-up vans, 30 double cabs, 52 motorcycles and a car will be provided to the census teams. The transport will cost around Rs140 million for 30 days.

Nationalists carry out awareness campaign

Meanwhile, leaders of different nationalist parties, who are carrying out an awareness campaign, have urged the people to write 'Sindhi' as their language in the census form. During their visits on Monday to different parts of Hyderabad, they advised people to ensure that the enumerator filled the census form with a pen rather than a pencil.
Sindh United Party President Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) President Ayaz Latif Palijo, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz Vice-President Dr Niaz Kalani and Awami Jamhori Party leaders jointly participated in the campaign.



"Non-Sindhis and illegal immigrants shouldn't be counted as residents of Sindh. We will not accept it," said Sindh Taraqi Pasand Chairperson Dr Qadir Magsi, requesting the people who live in Sindh to identify their sub-nationality as Sindhis.

"Around 40% of adults in Sindh don't have identity cards," claimed Palijo, adding that if they are not counted in the census, then adequate representation of Sindh in the national and provincial legislatures will be affected.

Palijo appealed to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Sindh Census Commissioner to waive the condition of an adult needing to possess a national identity card to be counted.



He argued that the number of seats in the national and provincial assemblies from Sindh should triple in Malir, Gadap and Lyari in Karachi and Qasimabad and Hyderabad Rural talukas in Hyderabad. He also complained that the number of census blocks in some parts of Hyderabad were lower than the estimated population in those places.