The house enumeration process in Karachi has been completed by 91 percent, while for the rest of the Sindh province, 96 percent of the work has been done, said provincial Census Commissioner Noor Muhammad Leghari.
While addressing at a press conference held in New Sindh Secretariat on Friday, he said the housing enumeration would complete by April 25 – the extended deadline – therefore, no extension in date would be required again.
“The housing enumeration has been completed in Thatta and Badin districts, and in the rural areas of Karachi, the work has been completed in around 15 out of 22 villages,” said Leghari.
Similarly, the process is continuing in old localities of Kemari Town and other areas of the city and the government has sent additional staff there to complete the process on time, he added. According to him, the three DDOs of Saddar, Jamshed Town, and Gulshan-e-Iqbal towns were not removed due to illegal activities but because they had given wrong figures.
The provincial census commissioner claimed that the housing enumeration in Sindh was completed more than any other province despite having different complications including presence of multi-linguistic population, illegal immigrants and complaints of political pressure. He added the results of the housing census would not be made public soon after its completion.
Leghari said that complaints of political nature are continuously being lodged, but on the whole, the housing count was continuing peacefully as only two separate incidents in the province have been reported where staff members had suffered injuries, while an off-duty staff member had been killed in Karachi.
Dispelling the impression that the population census was also being conducted simultaneously, the census commissioner said the current process was only housing enumeration and population census would be made in next phase. However, he added that the population census would be based on the results of the housing census.
While referring to Sindh’s nationalist parties expressing no confidence on the house count, Leghari said that rejection of the house enumeration results even before the completion of the task was unjustified.
“We are also sons of Sindh and cannot go against the interests of the province. We will not be its traitors,” he added. It is worth mentioning that nationalist parties have also given a strike call across the province for April 30 to protest against an alleged move to ‘convert Sindhi-speaking population into a minority in the province.’