The allegations of a bungled house-listing census took a turn when the chief of operations, Noor Muhammad Leghari, revealed that his house had been left uncounted. The town DDOs protested, however, saying that the work in his area, Saddar Town, has been completed.
“I have ordered an inquiry into why enumerators have left my house uncounted. It is pure negligence,” the commissioner told The Express Tribune. Leghari suspended those DDOs, of Saddar, Jamshed and Gulshan-e-Iqbal towns, who had claimed to have finished the task. “How can I believe them when my own house was not counted,” he asked.
Saddar DDO Arif Kalwar said, in his defence, that he had looked into the matter and that the Karachi Cantonment staff was responsible for the area where Leghari’s house is located “because the Pakistan government officers residences come under their jurisdiction”. However, Leghari’s house falls in Saddar Town.
‘Ghost’ enumerators
Saddar is not the only area affected. The residents of the neighbouring Jamshed Town are also perplexed. “We have heard that the house numbering has been completed here, but no one has bothered visiting this area,” said Asghar Khan, a resident of Hazara Colony. In Bhittai colony, which falls in Korangi Cantonment, people has similar complaints. “Some houses have been counted on our street, but the owners have no idea when the enumerators visited,” said Roshan, a resident of Sector-D. “We also heard that officials have completed the process here there is no number at my house.”
10 for one, one for 10
One of the main accusations against the census staff is that they are counting a multi-storey building as one house. “There are 10 families living [in separate apartments] in our building but the census team just gave it a single number,” said engineer Mohammad Ishaque Pirzado who lives in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.
During the initial phase, enumerators have to number houses then count families and their heads. “Somewhere, the enumerators have omitted the latter for their convenience,” said deputy census commissioner Khawaja Mazhar Jamal. However, this must not be confused with the population census which will be the last phase.
Political parties
Enumerators are compelled to work amidst political interference. “We have seen some political party members filling census forms with pencils,” said engineer Pirzado. “This is illegal because they are supposed to use pens. Anything in pencil can be erased and changed.” He maintained that some people are being ignored on the basis of their ethnicity while inaccurate data is being incorporated in the forms to show that a certain group is in the majority.
A senior official with the Provincial Census Commission, who did not want to be named, overruled the allegation of tampering the house listing records by using pencils. But he agreed that party activists and ethnic groups have been meddling.
“This process is not all about superiority and registering electoral rolls. But these people don’t understand that and they have turned many places in the city into no-go areas.”
Staff threatened
Deputy Census Commissioner Jamal said that enumerators are being kidnapped and tortured by people. “Unidentified men shot at Imran Ali in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Some also resorted to firing in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, which forced the census department to stop all work,” he said. “We have suspended work in the disturbed areas and will resume the census amid tight security. The census date for these areas will be extended.”
Areas neglected
The suburban areas are said to be the most neglected. Jeay Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party vice chairman Ali Hassan Chandio said that all the Sindhi-dominated areas have been ignored and in most areas, the census has not started yet. No one has bothered to visit fishermen living on islands off the Arabian Sea, he said.
Meanwhile, a delegation of political and religious leaders, led by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Amir Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, complained to Leghari on Saturday about the rampant house-count rigging. They handed over pictures and other documentary evidence. He told the commissioner that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had hijacked the census because “all the political parties except the MQM had rejected the census”.
Sindh to ask Centre for more days to rectify
The Sindh government has decided to recommend that the federal government give them more time for the house listing process. The census started on April 5 and is supposed to end on April 19, but due to the irregularities that have surfaced, the deadline needs to be extended by seven or 10 days. This decision was made at a meeting held under the supervision of Sindh Chief Secretary Subhan Memon at CM House on Saturday.
He said that millions of people had not been counted so far and it was not possible for them to get the work done in the remaining three days.
During the meeting, Leghari briefed the chief secretary about the irregularities and said committees have been formed to monitor the process.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2011.
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