karachi: Following are some interesting parts of the ‘interesting, bold and straightforward’ conversation witnessed between the PPP lawmakers and an official of the Provincial Census Commission, Joint Census Commissioner Farooq Baloch during the briefing:
Nisar Ahmed Khuhro: People need to take half of the housing census process duration just to understanding what it is. You should extend its duration. We (Sindhis) are already hurt.
Baloch: Our staff faces difficulties in counting houses in the traditional joint boundaries in the rural areas. We are hurt by our own [leaders].
Khuhro: I did not say by whom we have been hurt.
Baloch: People do not allow our staff to enter their joint boundaries.
Dr Zulfiqar Mirza: Why don’t you get police’s help? How do your people manage to go to areas of Karachi like Liaquatabad where even the police cannot enter? They [staff] get data on a white paper from there.
Baloch: We have not received such a complaint.
Mirza: But we have.
Hadi Bux Buriro (Sindh Assembly Secretary): At least four house situated in a joint boundary wall in my village have not been counted.
Mirza: Some 60 percent people of Badin [Mirza’s home district] are without national identity cards. My family members are also some of them. You should withdraw the condition of the national identity card for the housing and population census.
Khuhro: If there is no condition to show the national identity card for the housing census, why is it being demanded?
Pir Mazharul Haq: If there is a problem of purdah in joint boundaries in the rural areas, we can provide female teachers for such places. RAZZAK ABRO
