JI Karachi holds massive rally against 'flaws in digital census'

KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi staged a massive public rally at Karachi’s Sharea Faisal today to protest against the alleged fraud in the name of the digital census.

Thousands of Karachiites marched on Shahrah-e-Faisal, under the aegis of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi, against the massive fraud in the name of the digital census, demanding the authorities to count each and every citizen living in the city as Karachiite, irrespective of permanent addresses mentioned on their identity cards.

People, belonging to all walks of life participated in the march to record their protest against the tactics employed in the census to understate the population of the mega city. The protest march also passed a resolution against the skyrocketing deadly street crimes, massive load shedding in parts of Karachi and acute shortage of natural gas particularly for domestic consumers, a press release said.

READ: CENSUS TEAM ASKED TO COMPLETE OPERATION BY MAY 15: AHSAN IQBAL

Speaking on the occasion, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman warned the government and the authorities against any attempt to underreport the population of the city, saying that 35 million individuals live in the megalopolis and the authorities will have to count each and every one.

He mentioned that the actual headcount in the city during the census will lead to increasing its representation in the provincial assembly from 44 to 65 seats. He added that 65 legislators out of the total 130 on the floor of the assembly will be paving ways to elect a chief minister belonging to the city and the Pakistan People’s Party takes it as political suicide.

The JI Karachi chief said that on the other hand, households in rural areas of Sindh are fraudulently increased to maximize the scope of corruption in the Benazir Income Support Program and other such initiatives.

READ: SINDH CM MURAD ALI SHAH HINTS AT REJECTING DIGITAL CENSUS RESULTS

Hafiz Naeem mentioned that the progress of Karachi is directly resulted in the progress of Pakistan. He demanded of the Pakistan People’s Party to treat Karachi as the rest of the Sindh province. Highlighting the negligence, corruption and incompetency by the PPP government in Sindh, he complained that startup incubators were available in Punjab but not in Sindh. He questioned that why there is no mega development project in Karachi, why there is no mass transit system in the city and why the entire city is in shambles.

Further talking about the ongoing census, he said that everyone should be counted, count Christians, Hindus, Parsis and everyone living on the face of this earth.

He made it clear that headcount on the basis of permanent addresses mentioned in computerized national identity cards instead of the actual place of residence will not be tolerated at any cost.

He demanded of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s self-exiled leader Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, Awami National Party leader Amel Wali Khan, PPP Supremo Asif Zardari and other national leaders to speak up for the rights of Karachi.

Hafiz Naeem said that there are reports that some political parties are bargaining over the issue of the census and some perks and ministries are being traded against silence or cosmetic measures against injustice and flaws in the census process.