‘Fill these forms in two days and we will collect them’

Census teams leave forms with residents in District East

SUKKUR/ HYDERABAD/ KARACHI: At around 1pm, shares Barira, the security guard knocked on the door of her house in Erum Centre, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block 16. He handed the census form over to her and told her that the census team will come to collect the forms in two days.

Population count in the city began on Saturday. A census team left unfilled census forms with the security guard of Erum Center apartments in District East, asking the guard to distribute the forms in the apartments, which they would collect from him after two days.

"The guard said that after two days the census team will collect these forms from him," said Barira, adding that the guard told her that the team was accompanied by army personnel and a Rangers official.



When asked about this, Assistant Census Commissioner SM Yasin told The Express Tribune that he was not aware of any such activity, adding that if anything like that happened, he will take action.

As there was a lack of uniformity in the exercise, it took enumerators around half hour in other parts of the city to fill up the form II for each house.

District Central

Residents of District Central complained that their family members residing abroad were not listed in the form by enumerators.



A resident of District Central's North Nazimabad, Furqan Hussain, said his brother residing abroad was not named in the form. "The census officer just mentioned in the form that one family member is abroad," he said.

Meanwhile, another resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Samin Salman, said her brother and sister-in-law, who are residing abroad, were listed in the census form properly along with their Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) number.

"The soldier asked our sect," she said, adding that he mentioned that the sect question was optional. "We were also asked how many kitchens we have in our house and what material was used in the construction of the house."



District South

In District South, resident Salim Mushtaq said the census team came to their house but left as they did not have the CNICs of all the family members. "The team assured us that they will come back soon again," he said.

A resident of Clifton Block 7, Muhammad Irshad, told The Express Tribune that the census team visited his house in the afternoon but the team looked quite inexperienced and kept calling their incharge over queries. Irshad added it was taking around 20 minutes for filing out one single form. "If it is taking this long to fill out one single form, then how are they going to complete the census drive in the given time?" he asked. When The Express Tribune tried to approach the enumerator and his team, they were told to 'only observe'.

Tariq Nagori, a resident of Saddar, also complained of inexperienced behaviour of the census team. "Army personnel were guiding the team members."



When contacted, District South Assistant Census Commissioner Riazuddin Haider said they are 'busy in the field'.

Hyderabad and Ghotki

Meanwhile, the first day of the head count as part of the sixth population census concluded in the 1,036 blocks in Hyderabad district. The assistant census commissioner and deputy director of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Abdul Majeed Laghari, said the residents of Pakistan who had been out of the country for a period less than six months were counted in the process.

In Ghotki, head count began at a very slow pace. Enumerators, who lacked training on filling of the lengthy form, took around 25 to 30 minutes in filling one form.



"We started the process at around 8am and continued till 5pm," said an enumerator in Mirpur Mathelo. "During nine hours of hectic practice, I have filled around 23 forms only. In some houses, women are reluctant to open the door due to absence of male member, which further takes time. I don't think the process of head count can be completed in 10 days."

*With additional input from APP