Sindh parties demand extension of census period

F.P. Report
KARACHI: In the multi-party conference, organized by Pakistan Peoples Party, regarding concerns over the ongoing digital census 2023 by federal government, political, religious, nationalist parties, writers and literary persons have jointly announced that if the concerns of Sindh regarding the census do not end then its results will not be accepted.
The participating parties in the conference have demanded that the period of the census should be extended to count Sindh correctly, the defects in the census should be removed and there should be a separate box for foreign immigrants. This announcement was made by President of Pakistan People’s Party Sindh Nisar Ahmad Khuhro in a press conference at a local hotel in Karachi on Friday after the end of the multi party conference.
The multi-party conference was chaired by PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro, while Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah briefed the conference about the census. General Secretary of People’s Party Sindh Waqar Mehdi, Syed Nasir Shah, Saeed Ghani, Sassi Palijo, Kheal Das Kohistani of PML-N, Maulana Rashid Mehmood Soomro of JUI, Shahi Syed of ANP, Dr. Qadir Magsi of Sindh Tarqi Pasand Party, Aftab Qadri of Sunni Tehreek, Osama Razi of Jamaat Islami, Muhammad Haleem Ghori of JUP and leaders of Awami Workers Party, Awami Jamhoori Party, Writer Nazeer Laghari, Sindh Graduates Association representative Wali Muhammad, Dr. Ayub Sheikh and others participated in the conference.
In the conference, the leaders of various parties expressed their concerns in detail on the digital census and a joint declaration has been approved. At the end of the conference, Nisar Khuhro said that there are many concerns about the digital census, a separate box should be kept for foreign illegal immigrants, the period of census should be extended and all the people of Sindh should be counted.
He said that after no requirement of identity card, how will it be known who is a Pakistani and who is a foreign immigrant? The time given for house enumeration and census is very less because it takes more than 35 minutes to fill a form so how can all be enumerated in less time, if all these concerns about the census of Sindh are not removed, then Sindh will not accept the results of the census. He said that on behalf of the leaders participating in the conference, the Chief Minister of Sindh has been asked to discuss this matter with the Federation and end the concerns of Sindh and save Pakistan from being divided into two parts.
Nisar Khuhro said that the digital tablet is not working properly nor the app is working so that lest this digital census be like RTS. He said that the homeless millions flood affected peoples should be counted with the help of NADRA and the households being counted, should be given a receipt to know that how many peoples are enumerated and data of the census should be shared with Sindh.
Nisar Khuhro said that Pakistan is still standing on the provisional list of census, how can the elections of two provinces be conducted on the basis of the old census while the new census is going in the rest of the country, so we demand that new elections be held simultaneously in the country after the completion of the new census. Elections on the old census in two provinces and the new census in the remaining two provinces including the federation, is this the beginning of dividing Pakistan into two parts?
He said that Sindh had a strong objection to the 2017 census, the previous government decided to conduct a new census in CCI, so now the population of Sindh should be counted correctly in the digital census. Briefing the conference, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that there was a strong objection to the 2017 census, that is why the previous government and the CCI decided to conduct a new census.
He said that there should be a census, but not such a census as was done in 2017. The Chief Minister said that if the population of Sindh is counted accurately and transparently, then no one will object . He said that few people are insisting not to conduct a census which is not a solution. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the should be held in correct way, the flaws should be corrected and the concerns of Sindh should be eliminated.