KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the faulty census of 2017 has shown 47.8 million population of the province whereas its population, as per UNICEF survey, stands at 61.04 million.

“If the population of the province is counted at 61.04 million, the share of the province in the national resources would go up from about 24 percent to 29 percent.”

This he said while addressing a press conference here at CM House on Wednesday. He was accompanied by provincial ministers Nasir Shah, Taimur Talpur and Murtaza Wahab.

Census: Murad Ali Shah said that the census of 2017 was conducted after 19 years, after the census of 1998, but again it became controversial forth with its declaration of its provisional results. He added that the census, being part of Federal legislative list Part-II, was dealt by Council of Common Interest.

Shah said that during the tenure of PML-N government the provisional results of census- 2017 were declared which invited wide criticism. “Almost all the chief ministers, including of the Punjab had criticized its results,” he said and added that therefore the election of 2018 were held under the census of 1998 for which the PML-N government had taken all the parties, including PPP in Sindh and PTI in KPK onboard.

Recalling the CCI meetings, Shah said that it was decided that one percent of census blocks would be verified. A similar suggestion had also been given from the Senate and the senators had also prepared a document but the federal government in CCI had vowed to verify five percent of the blocks.

The CM said that in the last CCI meeting held in the tenure of PML-N government on May 27, 2018 the Statistics Division told that they could not vary five percent of the blocks, therefore it was decided to refer the matter to the parliament.

The chief minister disclosed that in the Census 2017 it has been said that Sindh has a total 8,478,047 households with 5.64 persons per house which constituted a population of 47,854,510. “As per Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey undertaken by all the provincials governments in coordination with Unicef the average household for Sindh is 7.2 persons per household,” he said and added based on the Unicef survey the total population of Sindh would come to 61,041,938 as opposed to 47,854,510 in Census 2017.”

Shah said that the census 2017 said that KPK has 8.03 persons living in a household and it has a total of 3,801,046 households, therefore its population came to 30,508,920. As per Unicef survey the KPK has 7.6 persons per household, therefore its population would be 28,887,950.

Punjab has 16,999,685 households with 6.47 persons per household and their population as per census comes to 109,989,655 whereas the Unicef survey says it has 6.3 persons per household. It means its population would be 107,098,016. The Census-2017 says that Balochistan has 1,745,994 households with 7.06 persons living per household and its population comes to 12,335,129 whereas the Unicef survey says it has 7.7 persons living per household. It means the population of Balochistan would be 13,444,154.

The chief minister said that the provincial cabinet has been authorised to refer the matter of census passed by the CCI with majority vote to the parliament.

Covid-19: The chief minister while talking about Coronavirus said that it was aggravating. “I had proposed the federal government to ban inter-provincial transport for at least two weeks so that the spread of the virus could be contained,” he said.

The CM said that through a presentation he was told that the new virus, England variant, was brought here by the people who travelled from England to Pakistan. “The federal government should have made screening and other arrangements at the airports, but this was not done,” he said. Shah said that the British government has vaccinated over 50 percent of its population but we [Pakistan] have hardly vaccinated 0.5 percent. He urged the federal government to make necessary arrangements for mass vaccination.

TLP sit-in: The chief minister talking about the sit-in staged by the TLP in Sindh said the federal government had informed the provincial police late night that sit-ins were taking place. “I told the police not to allow anybody to close any area. We had offered them designated areas for peaceful protests but they preferred to block the main road,” he said and added that sit-in were staged at 26 areas, of them 24 have been cleared.

He disclosed that five people died in protest, 18 were injured, including 12 policemen.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021