Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi, has announced that a protest will be held outside the Sindh Governor’s House on March 31 against the alleged conspiracy to underreport Karachi’s population in the upcoming census of 2023. Speaking to journalists at the JI Karachi headquarters, Idara Noor-e-Haq, Rehman stated that the people of Karachi will not tolerate any attempts to underreport the population of the city in the 7th census. He expressed his concerns over the census process and vowed to use all available forums against undemocratic designs reflected in the census process.
Rehman demanded that the authorities should count each and every citizen living in Karachi as a resident of the city and represent the city’s actual population in the provincial and national assemblies. He criticized the ruling parties for not playing their due role in the actual counting of Karachi’s population and lambasted the MQM-P and PPP for their dual standards when it comes to the rights of Karachi and its residents.
Rehman also called for transparency in the census process and demanded that there should be a mechanism to check the registration of people and statistics on a block code level. He stated that each and every person should be counted where they live. The JI leader warned that the people of Karachi have been demanding their due rights and not alms, and emphasized that Karachi needs an actual recording of its population for proper representation in the government.
