MPAs raise concerns over ‘digital census’

Legislators seek briefing on exercise to allay transparency concerns

KARACHI:

Opposition legislators in the Sindh Assembly on Friday expressed concerns over the upcoming digital census and demanded of the provincial government to approach the federal authorities to ensure transparency of the exercise.

“The last census results were rigged,” said Nand Kumar Goklani, an MPA of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), while moving a call-attention notice in the issue.

“In the current exercise, there is no transparent way to ascertain the number of people in any household.” Goklani said that requirements such as showing one’s CNIC had been done away with. “How one can trust this process blindly?” He contended that lawmakers needed a comprehensive briefing on the digital census to allay their concerns.

“We want to know what arrangements have been made so far. Not only the GDA, but MQM-Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami, Sindhi nationalist parties, and even the PPP had grave concerns over the last census. This time around, the process must be transparent,” he said. While responding to Goklani, Minister for Local Government Nasir Hussain Shah said that the Pakistan Peoples Party had already raised the census issue in the National Assembly and the Senate.

“We have always taken it seriously and protested over the last census too which showed the population of Sindh, especially of its capital Karachi, less than its actual population. We will have no issue if a briefing is arranged in the house for the lawmakers,” he said, while addressing Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

Culture & stipends

Earlier, when the session started, Minister for Culture and Education Syed Sardar Shah informed the house that his department was providing stipend to more than 1,000 deserving artistes, singers, poets and writers.

During the question and answer session, the minister informed that his ministry had launched a health card scheme for artists. Responding to another question, the minister said that there are 36 libraries in the province and 55 more would be built very soon. He added that the summary for the same had been sent to the department concerned. “We are also purchasing some libraries from the local government department.” When asked about art galleries, the minister said they had been set up within the culture complexes with a motive to promote art. He informed that there were 18 auditoriums under his department.

“Some auditoriums are under construction in Thatta and Benazirabad,” he said, adding that commercial events were also take place in the government auditoriums. Heated exchange The session witnessed a brief heated exchange between PTI MPA Khurum Sher Zaman and Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla as the former wanted to ask supplementary questions from the culture minister.