STP to launch protest against census

Party chairman calls digital headcount a ploy to turn locals into minority

HYDRABAD:

The Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STP) will launch a province-wide protest against the digital census of population from
March 4.

This was announced by the party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi at a press conference on Tuesday.

He claimed that the population numbers will be fudged in the offices concerned while the tabs being given to register the people are just a show-off.

Magsi said that the rains and flood in 2022 affected millions of people. There is a fear that those who are still displaced will be left out of the counting process, he said.

He said hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants living in Sindh will be counted among the province's population because the condition of producing CNICs has been waived. He pointed out that the census form lacked the options of permanent and temporary residences.

"This census is being conducted to pander to wishes of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement," he alleged.

The STP's chairman blamed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for supporting naturalisation of Afghanis in Sindh. Magsi said if any little shame is left in the leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party, whom he blamed for plundering the resources of Sindh, it should demand postponement of the census and should be scheduled for 2027.

"This census is being conducted to stop the role of Sindhis in politics in the urban areas," alleged Magsi. Magsi announced that his party workers would stage a sit in and set up a hunger strike camp outside Karachi Press Club from March 4 to March 20 while protest demonstrations will take place across the province.

Court moved against census

A senior lawyer and former member of Pakistan Bar Council advocate Shabbir Shar has challenged the census in Sindh High Court. The Sukkur bench fixed March 1 for the hearing of the case.

Shar while citing the Sindh government's statistics of 12.35 million rain and flood affected people and 2.1 million damaged houses, has sought cancellation of the census. "These people haven't received any compensation or assistance from the government to rebuild their houses.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2023.