KARACHI, Feb 13: The Census of Afghan refugees, with the cooperation of UNHCR, will start all over the country, including Karachi from Feb 23.

Giving details at a press conference, the District Coordination Officer, Fazlur Rehman, who has been appointed district officer census for Karachi said here on Saturday that in the city census will be carried out in four union councils of Orangi Town from Feb 14 as a pilot project.

He said in initial stages work for identification of Afghan localities and their houses was completed and with the help of this drill, census and registration of Afghan Refugees would be ensured.

He said that hopefully the task would be completed within two weeks for which services of 250 enumerators have been acquired. Initial estimates show that out of 178 UCs of the city, there are 118 UCs where Afghan refugees have taken abode.

Fazlur Rehman said that the reason of this census is to ascertain the accurate number of Afghan refugees living here. He said the city has been divided in various blocks and in each block 500 houses or 3000 residents have been included.

A two-member team of male and female workers would complete the census of a block in 10 days and there would be a supervisor over 10 teams. The teams from UNHCR and Federal Population Census Organisation will monitor all this process.

He said that training of staff and monitoring teams has already been started from Feb 10 while all other related arrangements have also been completed with the cooperation of federal government.

All Afghan Refugees who entered Pakistan after December 1, 1979, would be covered under census. The refugees who would not get themselves registered during census can face difficulties in preparation of documents with government of Pakistan and UNHCR.

The district officer census said that to make the drill successful, heavy responsibility lie on citizens, especially elected councillors, UC Nazims and Town administration. -APP