Census process marred with discrepancies

With the prevalent political and security situation in the country diverting the national attention towards the courts, the hue and cry over the census has taken a backseat despite its deadline being days away.

However, when the political stakeholders in Sindh’s capital finally wake up to the population count being wrapped up, they will realise that their demand of counting every head in Karachi has not been fulfilled despite multiple extensions in the first ever digital census’s deadline.

Officials higher up in the hierarchy of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the department responsible for conducting the census, confessed to the Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that large chunks of the population living in some 38,000 high-rise buildings of the port city had not been counted properly. “In various apartment complexes enumerators have only managed to count people up until the second floor of the building,” informed a PBS official.

The official blamed the counting discrepancies and lethargy in the census process on the Assistant and Deputy Commissioners of the province, along with the enumerators. “If there was an actual check on enumerators by the district administration then about 190,000 people would be counted daily but only 70,000 to 90,000 people are being counted every day,” the official regretted.

In this regard, various supervisors of the enumeration staff also admitted to the Express Tribune under the condition of anonymity, that due to a lack of a monitoring by Assistant Commissioners and the non-payment of allowances on time had demoralised the census staff and thus they were not counting people on all floors of high-rise buildings.

It is pertinent to mention that such complaints had been brought to the attention of the Sindh Government previously as well, after which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, protested against the census process. Subsequently, the deadline was extended to 15th May, and the Assistant and Deputy Commissioners were pressured to take their job seriously. “However, after 10 to 15 days, the concerned officers have gone back to their old ways and are withholding allowances and not monitoring the process,” alleged an official.

The Express Tribune contacted several Assistant and Deputy Commissioners to inquire about the allegations levelled against them. However, a majority of them declined to comment. Meanwhile, Sara Amjad, the Assistant Commissioner Liaquatabad, said, “I was posted here on 1st April and have been doing my job diligently.” When quizzed about the discrepancies in the census data, Amjad said that she did not have the data at the moment.

Similarly, Gauhar Sarwar, the Assistant Commissioner for Harbour, when asked about the allegations regarding non-payment of allowances, said that such allegations were false and that everyone was being paid on time.

However, contrary to Sarwar’s claims, an enumerator from Harbour, told the Express Tribune under the condition of anonymity, “our allowance is fixed at Rs 25,000 but either we are not given the requisite amount or the Assistant Commissioner’s office docks Rs 1,000 from the allowance and gives us only Rs 24,000.” An enumerator from Kemari also confirmed the Harbour enumerator’s claims and said that he had only been receiving Rs 24,000.

The Express Tribune made several attempts to confirm the allegations levelled by PBS’s own officials from Sarwar Gondal, the Spokesperson for PBS but he did not respond. Similarly, the Express Tribune contacted the Commissioner for Karachi, Iqbal Memon, multiple times to obtain his views on the allegations but did not hear back from him.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2023.