KARACHI – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sindh General Secretary Taj Haider on Tuesday proposed that the national census should be based on the electronic data of the country’s population compiled by the NADRA. In a press statement issued on Tuesday, Haider – also the head of PPP’s Sindh Monitoring Committee on Census – was of the view that large scale manipulations especially in Karachi had made the house-enumeration exercise extremely controversial. “Complaints were pouring in from almost all quarters, and from ordinary citizens to the Sindh Census Commissioner, everyone was questioning the accuracy of the house numbers and the data collected. In the rural areas near Karachi, 75 percent of houses remained unnumbered.
Instead of using official forms for entering particulars of family heads, unauthorised persons were noting down the details on plain papers with pencils,” he pointed out.
Haider regretted that while the census authorities had agreed to the proposals contained in his letter to the Sindh chief secretary dated April 15 and had also issued instructions accordingly, the on ground position remained unchanged and violations of law continued with impunity.
