Saeed Ghani demands census drive should continue beyond April 10 to properly count population of Sindh

Saeed Ghani demands census drive should continue beyond April 10 to properly count population of Sindh

Karachi : Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister, Saeed Ghani, has demanded that ongoing census drive should be extended beyond April 10 to ensure that the population of the province is properly counted in a transparent manner.

Speaking at the meet the press programme of Karachi Press Club on Saturday, the Sindh Labour Minister lamented that the ongoing 7th digital housing and population census had not been progressing in the right direction as per the suggestions duly given by the PPP.

Ghani, who is also PPP Karachi Division President, said that suggestions of his party to make sure that the population of Sindh was accurately counted had still not been implemented by the census authorities.
He disclosed on the occasion that PPP under a random survey checked whether all parts of Karachi had been covered under the census drive as it had come to their knowledge that several neighbourhoods hadn’t been counted.

Ghani said that on the basis of the information received so far he could state that the census drive hadn’t been conducted properly. He told media persons that although officials of the district administration were involved in the enumeration exercise they didn’t have the powers to check and verify the census data to ensure that occupants of every house had been duly counted.

He said that the distribution of fiscal resources and allocation of seats in the legislatures would be affected if the census drive was not conducted in a proper manner. He said that mutual ties based on trust between the centre and provinces would be affected if the census drive again became controversial this time.

Ghani recalled that the results of the last census held in 2017 hadn’t been accepted by Sindh. He mentioned that the Sindh government had effectively fought the case of the people of Sindh in this regard. He said that earlier efforts had been made to ensure that errors that occurred in the 2017 census shouldn’t be repeated this time.

He demanded that the census drive should be made fair and transparent instead of maintaining secrecy in the enumeration process. Answering a question, Ghani demanded that the incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan should step down because his rulings and conduct had violated the constitution and law. He lamented that the CJP and his two fellow judges had unduly supported Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

He said that it seemed to him that the judiciary was the cause behind prevailing political and economic crises in the country. Ghani informed the journalists that the People’s Party had emerged as the single largest political party in Karachi after the latest local government elections. He said the candidates of the PPP in Karachi had won the elections from such areas where earlier the People’s Party hadn’t secured the electoral victory.

The Sindh Labour Minister recalled that the PPP had secured electoral victories from the areas of Landhi and Korangi in the decade of 1970. He said the Election Commission of Pakistan shouldn’t have delayed so much the by-elections on the vacant seats in Karachi if the same by-polls had to be held before the mayoral election.

He lamented that the ECP had unduly used delaying tactics in declaring the complete results of the local government polls in the city. To another question, Ghani conceded that the situation of street crimes had become bleak in Karachi but it was wrong to assume that police didn’t have the powers to nab the criminals involved in such tactics. He said that several suspects involved in street crimes were caught by the police but they were later released after getting bail orders from the courts.

He assured the journalists that the Sindh government would do its best to speedily resolve all the issues of the Karachi Press Club and its members.