KARACHI: Raising serious concerns over the so far progress of population count in Karachi, the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on Tuesday rejected the five-day extension in the deadline of census fieldwork and demanded that the national exercise be continued till April 30.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s Idara Noor-i-Haq headquarters, city JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman warned that any “manipulation” in the final number of Karachi would lead to strong protests.

The party also accused the federal government and its allies of making the census controversial due to its incompetence and ill intentions, saying the authenticity of the most crucial national matter had already been “ruined”.

“We demand that the government extend the date of enumeration till at least 30th in order to ensure counting of each and every person living in this mega city,” he said. “I challenge the authorities that enumeration process has not been carried out as yet in thousands of census blocks.”

He alleged that enumerators marked only a few floors in a large number of high-rise residential buildings. “It’s a direct attack on the resources and future of Karachi,” he added.

“Isn’t it quite mysterious that the data of the 2017 census has been deleted so no reference can be created against the ongoing census,” he questioned.

He said that in the 2017 census, the population of Karachi stood at only 16 million and after objections it was decided that a sample survey of five per cent census block would be carried out. “But the decision was not followed,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2023