Karachi: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan senior leader Farooq Sattar rejected ongoing first-ever digital census which is 7th national census in country being conducted by Sindh government employees.

Development came after Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Chief Statistician Dr Naeem Uz Zafar on Sunday said that "It is not necessary that Karachi's population will show as 30 million" after census.

Addressing press conference, MQM-P leader expressed fears that plan has been devised to show less population than actual headcount of urban areas of Sindh. "46 percent of population in Karachi has been counted," he said, adding that it seemed that total population of metropolis would be shown around 20 million in census. MQM-P leader also demanded fresh census conducted by an impartial and private sector company. He also asked for access to census data. Referring to press conference by head of statistics department day earlier, Sattar said that statistics shared by department indicated that their doubts are true. MQM-P leader is of view that population of urban areas is being shown less and in rural areas, it is being shown more than actual figures by census authorities. Sattar feared that Karachi's population would be shown 66 percent less than its actual count. Sindh government is committing rigging in census by their "Own enumerators", he added.

Published in The Daily National Courier, March, 29 2023

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