KARACHI: After nationalist parties and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Monday also raised serious concerns over the process of first-ever digital census in the country and doubted that it would not tell the true population count of Karachi.

The concerns were shared by senior MQM-P leader Dr Farooq Sattar at a press conference held at the party’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad.

Dr Sattar accused both the PPP-led Sindh government and the federal government for already “fixing” the results, which might ‘deprive Karachiites from true representation in every segment of the governance and resources’.

“I think the way this digital census has been designed and being carried out, the Karachi population wouldn’t be more than 18 million or 20 million,” he said.

“I remember, it was in 2013 when [PPP leader] Taj Haider had claimed that Karachi’s population was 20 million. So after 10 years, should this number grow or decline? This census was decided by the then government of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in compliance with an MQM-P demand. But, we have serious reservations over the process which has been adopted for his exercise,” he said.

He questioned the merit and partiality of those appointed as enumerators by the provincial government and wondered as to why volunteers from urban private institutions, teachers and professionals were not recruited for this huge exercise.

Sattar demands each flat in a residential complex be counted as separate unit

“In this whole exercise, we doubt that Karachi’s population count will not be shown in true terms and on the other hand, rural Sindh would be shown as more populated than the past [census],” said Dr Sattar.

“The appointment of enumerators by the Sindh government raised alarm bells ringing in the first place. Then the web portal designated for the people to register themselves went down the first day, raising serious question marks on its effectiveness. Still, there are several things which are not in black and white and need explanation from the census commissioner,” he said.

Referring to the party meeting with the census commissioner where MQM-P leaders apprised him of their concerns and sought his response on certain issues, he claimed that even the senior official was confused and couldn’t answer several queries put forth by the party.

“In the 2017 census, Karachi was deceived in the name of this exercise. We came to know that the buildings which housed dozens of flats and even more than 100 units were counted as one unit. This is one example of the flawed process that had deprived Karachiites of their due rights,” added Dr Sattar.

To avoid such a “fraud”, he advised Karachiites to be vigilant and insist on true counting of their neighbourhood and its people. He also asked them to cooperate with the teams of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) when they visit their areas.

PML-N asks people to be vigilant

Meanwhile, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the centre asked Karachiites to be vigilant and proactive during the ongoing census. The party also asked its workers and leaders in the city to volunteer themselves for effective counting and assist their area people to be counted in the census.

“This national census is very crucial for every Pakistani in general and for Karachiites in particular,” said PML-N leader Nasiruddin Mahmood.

“PML-N workers and leaders have been asked to closely monitor the process in their respective residential areas and make sure that every individual of their neighbourhood is counted,” he said, adding: “Similarly, apart from people, we will have to make sure of the counting of every residential infrastructure, unit or even hut in our neighbourhood for a true picture of our city.”

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2023