Count the residents of 30,000 apartment blocks left out in the digital census and also the millions of people living in the slums, read the resolution passed at the Karachi stakeholders conference organised by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Karachi chapter on Sunday.
The resolution further demanded that the difference between the number of electricity meters and the number of households in the census should be determined. If there are anomalies there should be a recount.
PTI Secretary General Asad Umar addressing the conference said that the first digital census in the history of Pakistan was planned by the PTI-led federal government.
He said that, the results of the digital census should be made public. Every citizen should have access to their registration details.
PTI Karachi President Aftab Siddiqui said Karachi has an estimated 3.2 million electric connections on the basis of this figure it can be estimated that the city has a population of 250 million. There are also illegal electric connections in the city which is not considered in the proper count.
Don’t estimate, count everyone: CM
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has demanded extension of the census in the rural areas of Sindh. In a letter sent to Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal the Sindh CM said, “we have strong reservations about the decision to freeze the population in these tehsils and talukas where headcount has reached a certain level till April 30.” CM demanded of the planning minister that the census in all the districts of Sindh should continue till every household and every person is counted.
JI march
Thousands of people marched on Shahrae Faisal, under the aegis of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi, against the digital census.
JI Karachi Ameer Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman warned the government and the authorities against any attempt to underreport the population of the city, saying that 35 million individuals live in the megalopolis and the authorities will have to count each and every one.
MQM-P says helped correct city’s headcount
Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Sunday said that it has been proven through the media reports and government agencies that population of urban Sindh is being shown less in census “not due to any mistake, but under a conspiracy.”
“If MQM had not continued its efforts in this regard, population of Karachi would have been 14.4 million on the day the census was being completed,” he said at a press conference in the park adjacent to the temporary centre of MQM-P in Bahadurabad.
Nationalists air reservations
At a joint press conference at Hyderabad press club on Sunday, Qomi Awami Tehreek Ayaz’s Latif Palijo, Jeay Sindh Mahaz’s Riaz Chandio, Sindh United Party’s Roshan Buriro and other Sindhi nationalist leaders, declared the census a conspiracy against the historical and geographical unity of Sindh.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2023.
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