RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Speakers at a panel discussion on Friday rejected the results of the population census in Karachi, saying the figures announced are forged.

Titled Population Census Results 2017, the discussion was held by the National Forum for Environment and Health under the organization’s Save Karachi Campaign.

Sindh’s minister for information Nasir Hussain Shah expressed serious reservations over the headcount results, saying the Sindh government would take up the matter with Council of Common Interest (CCI) in Islamabad.

He said Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has written to the federal government asking for complete details on the results.

The Karachi emir of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Naeemur Rehman, said the results of the headcount reflect underreporting of the city’s population.

Citing Karachi’s master plan, he said that by 2020 the population of Karachi will be 20.4 million and rise to 30 million by 2030.

He said it appeared that only the Mohajir population of Karachi has been counted in the census, and the rest of the city’s residents were ignored.

He said distribution of Karachi’s resources could be agreed upon only if the results of the census were acceptable to its residents.

The chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan, Dr Farooq Sattar, noted that the growth of Karachi’s population is underreported, which was likely to escalate the administrative, political and ethnic divide in the entire province of Sindh.

“Complaints of misreporting have been received from all over the province,” he added.

Economist Qaiser Bengali demanded the announcement of block-wise dates of the census in order to satisfy the complaints regarding the census.