KARACHI: Looking to mobilise political parties and chalk out a plan to resist attempts by the federal government that are seen as trying to turn Sindhis into a minority in their own homeland during the forthcoming census in March, the Awami Jamhoori Party (AJP) called a multi-party conference or the Sindh Census Conference to highlight this critical issue at the Karachi Press Club on Friday.

Welcoming all, AJP president Abrar Qazi explained how Sindhis feel that wrongly showing that they are outnumbered by migrants in their province will take away their voice to have their opinions heard. “This conference is greatly concerned about the census in which attempts will be made to enumerate house and head count in such a way as to show the indigenous people in minority,” he said.

“We Sindhis don’t want to steal anyone else’s right. But we don’t want anyone else to steal our rights, too. We want our rights protected,” said senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader Taj Haider.

“There should be no room for error in the data gathered during the census. But here there are so many things that keep one from collecting correct statistics. For instance, many women, around three to four per cent of the population of Sindh, don’t have CNICs. Then it has also been seen that even a room constructed over a water pump in an apartment block sometimes fits the description of a house and is included in census. Such things can be very misleading.

“Maybe we can engage Google for census. A person can write his or her address to check how many people are mentioned as living there. If wrong, he or she can correct it. There are modern ways of collecting data and taking proper count, too. I urge the government to use such methods as going door to door has proved quite insufficient for carrying our census here,” he said.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, presi­dent of the Sindh United Party, said that “even a dustbin in Sindh is projected as a home with a household. We need to report to the deputy commissioner in every district about all such discrepancies. This is because the development of infrastructure also depends on the data collected during census. It is also important to put pressure on the provincial government to monitor the work district wise in order to make the census transparent.”

Nadir Leghari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said that Sindh is a very important province and its residents had a big hand in the creation of Pakistan but afterwards they were seen as insignificant. “Yes, Karachi is diverse with so many peoples but Sindhis should not be put in the background. It is time for a joint struggle and taking a collective stand to safeguard our rights,” he pointed out.

Noorunisa Ghanghoro, general secretary of the Sindh Association of North America, said that all the parties gathered at the conference, knowing the dynamics of Sindh should take ownership of their province and come up with a proper system for census. “Also involve women organisations and youth organisations to start a coordinated movement for it by spreading awareness about the importance of a proper census. This is also as big an issue as health and well-being of the people during emergencies such as floods,” she added.

Mushtaq Mirani, chairman, Sindh Democratic Forum, suggested that just like during elections we have international observers, there should also be observers to watch over the process of census. “It will bring validity and credibility,” he said.

Economic adviser Dr Kaiser Bengali said that census forms the basis for economic and social planning therefore it needs to be correct.

“Perhaps political parties and institutions should monitor the issuing of CNICs because all those registered for identity cards cannot escape the system. Discrepancies, too, can be kept in check by comparing the number of people in an area to the number of CNIC’s issued there,” he said.

“Nadra’s leadership, especially their top 20 officers, and the top 20 officers in the Census Commission must have five officers from each province in order to keep things in check regarding each province,” he further suggested, adding that the migrant population of Karachi should not have voting rights for 20 years or so like they did in Assam where the indigenous population was falling due to excessive migration.

Finally, as part of the resolutions passed during the conference all agreed that they wanted the house-to-house counts to be increased from three days to seven so that-far flung areas and houses as well as those on islands can also be included.

It was also demanded that the government of Sindh establish complaint centres in all district headquarters in case of any suspicions that the counting was not being done correctly.

It was stressed that the time has come where the motherland of various peoples of Pakistan be given constitutional guarantees like those given by Indian Constitution Articles 370 and 371 to Kashmir, Goa, Nagaland and other states to stop the unchecked influx and buying of property there by outsiders.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2016