Nationalist parties have called the house-count process a conspiracy against the people of Sindh to convert them into a minority in their own province and announced observing a strike on April 30.
They said that a linguistic party has been given free hand to manipulate the first phase of the sixth census and that the ruling party is also responsible for this crime.
Sindh Census Monitoring Committee Convener Jalal Mahmood Shah announced the decision after the committee’s meeting held at Hyder Manzil on Thursday.
Shah said that a detailed report with evidence was presented in the meeting, and that it has been proven that a huge fraud is being committed in the name of house-counting.
He said that the transparency of the house-count process was questioned after a single house was given over 10 numbers; whereas shopping plazas, shops, markets, post offices, government offices, under-construction houses, localities of illegal immigrants and garbage dumps have also been allotted house numbers.
Instead of the staff of the Education Department, the house-count process is being carried out by a political party’s activists and other personnel, which is illegal, he added.
Shah said, “A pre-census rigging is being carried out especially in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah. We reject, condemn and resist it. This bogus house-counting should be stopped, and restarted through the staff of the Education Department.”
He said that the committee would observe a strike throughout the province on April 30 as the first phase of the protest, which would continue until acceptance of demands.
Senator Dr Khalid Mahmood Soomro said that it is a part of international conspiracy to convert Sindhis into a minority in their own province.
Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz Chairman Bashir Qureshi said that it is brutality against Sindhis. “A majority is being converted into a minority in broad daylight in front of everyone,” he added.
He said that a protest would be recorded on April 30, and that neither any shop would be open nor any public transport be on the road that day.
They demanded that localities of illegal immigrants in Karachi, Thatta and Hyderabad should not be counted or given legal cover through the census.
Meanwhile, a sit-in was arranged by the Sindh Joint Action Committee in front of the Karachi Press Club to protest the Sindhi localities being ignored in Karachi and Hyderabad.