JI Karachi chief meets Sindh governor, expresses reservations over digital census

KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman along with a delegation called on Governor Sindh Kamran Tessori over the issue of the underreported population of Karachi in the ongoing census.

The meeting took place at the Sindh Governor House, here on Friday. Following the meeting, the two sides held a joint press conference and expressed their views on the issue.

Speaking on the occasion, Engr Naeemur Rehman reiterated his basic demand that each and everyone living in Karachi should be counted as Karachiite.

The JI leader said that the delegation shared all the concerns over the ongoing census. He said that each and every citizen has the right to confirm if he or she has been counted in the enumeration or not. In this regard, he said, citizens should be given access to the data which is not rocket science in this age.

On the occasion, he suggested constituting a stakeholders committee, comprising stakeholders of the city to oversee the census. He said the population of Karachi is being underreported under a designed and well-deliberated conspiracy to usurp it’s rights and to provide a lifeline to feudalism prevailing in the province and particularly the top brass of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), according to a press release.

امیر جماعت اسلامی کراچی حافظ نعیم الرحمان نے وفد کے ہمراہ ملاقات کی،صوبہ کی سیاسی صورتحال، شہر قائد کے جاری ترقیاتی منصوبوں، مردم شماری اور دیگر امور پر تبادلہ خیال pic.twitter.com/5kmeSpNjpn

— Kamran Tessori (@KamranTessoriPk) April 14, 2023

He said that the due rights of Karachi and Karachiites in resources and quotas for jobs and education as well as representation in the lower and upper houses of the legislature will be compromised very badly if the population is not counted properly in the census.

Engr Naeemur Rehman said that the JI had raised the same objections over the 2017 census but the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had notified the flawed results while chanting the mantra of the next census and once again the population of Karachi is being counted in half in the name of digital census.

Gover Sindh Kamran Tessori while talking to the media said that the JI has shared it’s concerns over the ongoing census procedure. He said that other political parties too share the concerns about flaws in the census and all the reservations by political parties should be addressed.

Tessori said that the concerns of the JI and other political parties will be resolved. He said that he, in the capacity of a governor, has already written a letter to the federal planing minister, Ahsan, asking him to resolve the prevailing issues and to extend the date for enumeration till all the issued are not resolved.

The JI delegation also presented some gifts to the governor and expressed their hope that the governor will also play his due role in resolving other issues concerning the federal government.