KARACHI: After various nationalist parties in the province, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, which is one of the major coalition partner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led federal government, on Saturday also expressed serious concerns over the upcoming first-ever digital census demanding identification of illegal immigrants in the population count in Sindh.

Speaking at a press conference here in the Committee Room of the Sindh Assembly, PPP’s Sindh president Senator Nisar Khuhro criticised the federal government for not including a separate checkbox in the census form for illegal immigrants.

“In the digital census of the country, illegal immigrants should be kept in a separate box by counting them in the province in which they are present on a de facto basis,” he said.

He said that Sindh was concerned about illegal immigrants because there was no requirement of identity card in the census form. “How will it be known whether the person counted is a Pakistani or an illegal immigrant,” he asked.

Khuhro demands separate checkbox in census form to identify illegal immigrants in Sindh

He said that the census form did not contain a methodical formulation of the errors that needed to be rectified.

He said that according to the 2010 report of the National Alien Registration Authority (Nara), there were 2.5 million illegal immigrants in the province, adding that the number must have multiplied by 2023.

“Nadra and Nara have failed to register illegal immigrants,” he said, urging the two authorities to speed up the process of registration of illegal immigrants and tighten the system of checking at the borders so that the complete data of illegal immigrants in the province could be ascertained.

The PPP Sindh chief said that in the digital census, the person who was present in the province should be counted in that province. “Even if the child is born one hour ago [he/she] should also be counted and no one should be asked for permanent address,” he suggested.

He said that if all the people in Sindh were not counted, province’s share in the National Finance Commission Award would be affected adversely. “Sindh is also bearing the burden of the people of other provinces, so every Pakistani in the province should be counted,” he demanded and said that illegal immigrants should be kept in separate camps.

He recalled that the province had objections to undercounting in the province in the previous census. “So every citizen in Sindh should be counted,” he urged.

Sen Khuhro said that the population of Sindh had increased and its share in the NFC should also be increased. He said that the flaws in the digital census should be corrected.

He said that the interior ministry had the authority to deport illegal immigrants and it must look into the matter.

He said that a large number of residents of Sindh did not still possess computerised national identity cards (CNIC). “Nadra should speed up the work of issuing identity cards to people of the province,” he added.

In response to a question, he said that it was the proposal of the PPP to participate in the by-elections. “However, a unanimous decision of all the coalition partners in the federal government, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, is awaited regarding whether or not to participate in the important by-elections,” he added.

Condemning the terrorist attack on the office of the city police chief, he said that it was aimed at challenging the writ of the government. “We share the grief of the martyred law enforcers with the bereaved families and salute their bravery of the law enforcement agencies who fought the terrorists and sent them to hell.

He said that proscribed organisations were behind such incidents.

Criticising former premier and chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the PPP senator said that Imran Khan was the advocate of TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) who was still not ready to condemn the attack on police and law enforcement personnel.

He was of the view that terrorists should be eliminated by fully implementing the National Action Plan.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2023