KARACHI – The ruling PPP and Sindh’s nationalist parties have joined hands to ensure a transparent population census in the province. The decision was taken on Friday at a meeting held in PPP’s Provincial General Secretary Taj Haider’s office.
Sindh United Party chief Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah – the head of the newly-constituted Sindh Census Monitoring Committee by the nationalist parties – and the leaders of other Sindh-based parties attended the meeting.
“It is an important step towards population census,” said Haider, during a joint briefing held after the meeting.
He said the meeting was held after Shah himself contacted the PPP and offered a joint sitting to table some recommendations. Responding to a question, Haider said he has directed the leadership of PPP Karachi and Hyderabad chapters for contacting other parties, including the MQM, in connection with the PPP’s efforts of gathering all political parties and civil society representatives for successful and useful population census.
He was optimistic that no duplicate entries would be made during the census this time as the PPP Sindh chapter wants that each and every person and household be counted. Earlier during the meeting, the nationalists’ parties and the PPP developed consensus on nine points, which were later announced as the joint declaration at the press briefing.
According to the points agreed, the government could call army in ‘disturbed urban areas’ of Sindh for ensuring transparency in census. Elaborating on the point, Haider said there are some urban areas where civilian staff could not work freely and under the constitution, army could be called for the help of civilian administration. Reading other points/demands, Shah said the Sindh government has been requested to get a provincial census commissioner appointed soon as the post has been vacant for the past three years.
It was also agreed at the meeting that only legitimate Pakistanis be enrolled in the census and a separate list maintained for aliens residing in the province; at least one enumerator posted in each census block for ensuring timely enrollment of people and households; establishment of monitoring committees at taluka level comprising representatives of political parties and civil society organisations, with the authority to approach any officer involved in census for getting information, draw attention towards lacunas and check data entry randomly for ensuring transparency; census forms filled by any person other than the census staff not to be accepted; household counting data be placed on website of the census commissioner immediately after completion of the count; and that the census commissioner should ensure registration of all flood-affected people in Sindh by making special arrangements.
The participants of the meeting also showed concern over the issuance of fake CNICs, as declared by the NADRA, while demanding immediate cancellation of the fake identity cards. Others who attended the meeting included members of the Sindh Census Monitoring Committee, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz’s Illahi Bux Bikak, Sindh Taraqi Passand Party’s Ali Hassan Chandio, Jeay Sindh Mahaz’s Illahi Bux Chachar, Karachi Rajoni Ittehad’s Haji Shafi Mohammad Jamot and Sindh United Party’s Syed Ghulam Shah.
