SUKKUR: A meeting of the census monitoring committee was held at the residence of convener of the committee Dr A.G. Ansari in Jacobabad on Monday where it was decided that awareness needs to be created about the population census throughout the district. It was also decided that an awareness rally would be taken out on Feb 21.

The leaders of the All-Party Conference including president of the Chamber of Commerce Mir Ahmed Ali Brohi, Nadeem Qureshi of the Pakistan Peoples Party (Shaheed Bhutto), Hafiz Mir Muhammad Banglani of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), Abdul Manan Mahar of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Dil Murad Lashari of the Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party, Muhammad Alam Khoso of the Teachers Association and Government School Teachers Association, Fida Hussain Lashari of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Nisar Ahmed Abro of Majlis Wahdat-ul-Muslemeen, Izhar Hussain Pathan, Dileep Kumar, Gulab Jan Mengal of the Balochistan National Movement, Israr Ahmed Ghunio of the PML-Nawaz, Habib Lashari of the Jamote Qaumi Movement, Wahid Brohi of the Jeay Sindh Student Federation, Taj Muhammad Amroti of the Jamiat Talaba Islam as well as other political, social, religious leaders, alongside traders and prominent citizens attended the meeting.

Dr Ansari told the meeting that population census had to be scientific to help plan future development of financial awards, creation of jobs, assembly seats, and for keeping development funds for urban and rural areas for health, education, construction and other areas for urban and rural populations.

He said that there was a conspiracy against Sindh to divide it on linguistic grounds and promised to make this campaign unsuccessful.

All leaders in their address said that for the existence of Sindh as well as for promotion of economy, culture and the Sindhi language, they should take part in the population census.

President of the Chamber of Commerce Mir Ahmed Ali Brohi said that 40 organisations included in the chamber of commerce would take part in the census.

He said that as house counts would be in the first phase therefore it should be ensured that no house was left. He added that if there were four brothers in the house this must be shown as four families. He said that in the column of the mother tongue, the Sindhi language should be entered, whether the language was Seraiki, Balochi or others.

He said that due to not making correct entries in population census or house counts there had been different hurdles in achieving our due rights.

On this occasion a committee comprising 20 parties was formed which would create awareness about the census throughout the district, in urban and rural areas.

The meeting passed a unanimous resolution and said that the completion of the task of population census within three days was a conspiracy and could not be completed within this period satisfactorily as Sindh has a population of more than 70 million.

They demanded that population census and house counts be carried out in an impartial way and updated on a website. Also, they said an SMS service should be started so that people could get complete information easily.

A rally was also taken out under the leadership of Dr Ansari to create awareness about the importance of population and housing census which started from Shaheed Sarfraz Chowk and reached Sarafa Chowk where participants held a sit in and demanded a maximum period to satisfactorily carry out the task.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016