Karachi won’t tolerate conspiracy in understating population in 7th census: Pak party chief

Karachi [Pakistan], March 30 (ANI): Karachi people will not tolerate any conspiracy for underrating the population of the city in the seventh census, The News International reported citing the Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman’s statement.

In the statement, JI announced that it will hold a protest camp outside the Sindh Governor House against the attempts to once again understate the population of the megacity.

He expressed grave concerns over the census 2023, saying his party would use all the available forums against the undemocratic designs reflected in the census process. The JI leader demanded that the authorities count each and every citizen living in Karachi as a resident of the megalopolis, reported The News International.

Pakistan’s first-ever digital population and housing census, which was rolled out on March 1, promises to be transparent but residents in Karachi and PoK fear that it will change the demography and after that, they will lose everything, including incumbent political representation, they will lose their incumbent jobs and many other things.

Earlier, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Rabita (MQM-P) Coordination Committee expressed its grave concerns over the process Pakistan’s first digital census is being carried out, saying that if any errors in the statistics are found then the party would hold its own census, reported The Express Tribune.

The party claimed further that its reservations over the ongoing exercise of the 7th Population and Housing Census in the country were coming true.

In February, the party had written to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) chairman, saying that allocating only three days for conducting the census in the densely-populated Karachi was not enough.

The letter stated that at least 10 days should be set aside for household head counts.

It added that the number of days should be increased for the three phases of national household and digital censuses.

The party had also warned that any count of Karachi’s population below 40 million would not be acceptable to it.

Sources said the MQM-P had conveyed its reservations over the census to the premier as well as the chief commissioner of the exercise, the PBS chairman, The Express Tribune reported.

According to the latest PBS figures, the census of 23.6 million houses had been completed by Sunday across the country.

It added that it had finished the counting of 140 million people.

The PBS said overall, 61 per cent of the census had been completed.

It continued that the entire exercise in the country would be achieved by its scheduled time of April 4.