KHAIRPUR: A rally taken out from Kammu Shaheed by the Sindh United Party (SUP) to create awareness about population census reached the Babarloi bypass here on Friday. Later it headed to Karachi.

It was organised to create awareness about house and population census among the people of Sindh.

On arrival here, the rally was welcomed by local activists of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam and other nationalist as well as religious organisations.

Speaking on the occasion, SUP leader Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah, Abrar Kazi and Karam Wassan of the Awami Jamhoori Party (AJP), Niaz Kalani of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) and others said population census was done after every 10 years throughout the world in order to count the population, plan for their food and distribute national resources as well as for political representation.

The population census in Pakistan was done in 1998 and it now was planned for March 2016, they said, adding that the process was very important. Therefore, the people of Sindh should know that their inclusion in the house and population census was their constitutional right; they should take full interest in getting themselves counted and recorded correctly.

It was the only way through which employment, development and representation of people could be achieved, they said. People should make sure to get every house, autaq (guest house), mosque, madressah, Imambargah, shop, school, government building numbered properly. Every address should be recorded clearly stating colony, road, street, village and Deh name, they suggested.

If many families were living in one house under a combined family system, each family should be counted separately along with its head. They said that after the completion of the census when lists were displayed, people should check if their houses were recorded in the list or not.

They said political, economic and social development of Sindh was associated with recording of proper information in the house and population census.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2016