HYDERABAD: Sindh United Party chief Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah has urged the government to increase the time frame for completing the census in order to rectify the ‘lapses’ being reported in the process, otherwise, it will be an exercise in futility.

Mr Shah, who also heads a census monitoring committee of nationalist parties, said at a press conference in Qasimabad on Wednesday that such lapses could be corrected easily.

He said that he had noticed during visits to different localities of the city that 20-year-old maps for house listing had been given to enumerators. He had visited different parts of Qasimabad and urged people to cooperate with census teams, he said.

He said that these maps were prepared in 1997 for use in the 1998 census, which had been rejected. The officials of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics always planned maps along with sub-divisional magistrates but the ‘incompetent’ officials of the Sindh government did not provide new maps to the bureau, he said.

He said that he found in Diplai Society the team had a list of 150 houses whereas the society management claimed there were 450 houses in the society. Similarly, he said, 192 houses were mentioned in Hur Camp but there were between 1,000 and 1,100 houses.

Mr Shah criticised the census commission and the Sindh government for their inefficiency and said that according to a safe estimate, the population of Hyderabad had swollen by at least five to six per cent.

He said that he had received complaints that census teams were using pencils for enlisting houses in Sachal Goth and Jauhar Complex areas in Karachi although only pen was to be used. It showed mala fide intentions of carrying out the census exercise, he said.

He said that the number of blocks could be increased easily and added that those who had created the blocks should also prove that 250 houses were located and not 1,000.

Mr Shah said that at a meeting of the Council of Common Interests it was debated that population ratio should be applied for determining census figures, but the SUP had opposed it and demanded physical verification.

He said that it was also discussed that the census should be frozen till 2030 but his party disagreed again. He was thankful to former Chief Justice of Pakistan retired Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, who belonged to Hyderabad and ordered holding of the census during his tenure.

He feared the rulers’ disinterest in the census might render the whole exercise controversial. He would meet census commissioner on Thursday to raise these issues, he said.

Saghar Hanif Burdi of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Bashir, SUP’s Dr Dodo Maheri and Roshan Buriro were also present at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2017