HYDERABAD: Raising serious questions over the way the digital census is being carried out, Sindh Governor Mohammad Kamran Tessori has said enumerators neither refer to CNICs nor provide forms to household heads after the enumeration.

Speaking to journalists during his visit to Hyderabad Press Club on Monday, he said that like political parties, he also had concern over the digital census being held.

He said the census commissioner had sought one week’s time to allay fears over the exercise. Pakistan’s economic and social conditions were not good currently because ‘we could not set economic direction of the country in the past 75 years’, he said, adding that the worsening economic conditions demanded imposition of an economic emergency.

The middle class was non-existent in the country; either there were extremely rich or the extremely poor people to be seen. Had charities and NGOs not been working, the situation would have become more critical, he added.

He wondered whether politicians were really concerned about the masses and asked if the state institutions and forces would continue to be maligned. “Is there any plan to stop our nuclear plant?” he asked and said that prime ministers were ousted in the past, but it was for the first time that people were witnessing new things in 75 years.

The governor said that it was not time for mudslinging; it required everyone to help each other as Hyderabad had so many civic issues.

He said Imran Khan had preferred his ego above everything and experimented with the country. Pakistan in general and Sindh in particular was in the grip of mafias and system, he added.

He said he had asked the census commissioner at the inaugural ceremony of the digital census as to why the CNIC was not included in the process. He said that enumerators were not handing over copies to people during enumeration process and that raises questions over the exercise.

He said the digital census must continue so that anyone who was not counted got himself/herself counted with enumerators.

The governor said the system would not be derailed as it was a coalition process in which allies often had grievances, but then they were persuaded to keep working.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2023