After having completed the first phase of house count process during ongoing census in selected districts of Sindh, the enumerators are now set to begin population count in more than 19000 census blocks of the province, Friday. Sindh has been divided into 38,999 census blocks and in the first phase, census is being carried out in six districts of Karachi, Hyderabad, Ghotki and some parts of Sehwan.
"Six districts of Karachi division consists of 14522 census blocks for the house count and census while half of them have been covered in the first phase and remaining to be covered in the second phase", Syed Zahid Shah, the focal person of the Karachi Commissioner told Business Recorder.
He said the Federal Bureau of Statistics set March 31 for counting of homeless people. The population count will take 10 days. Then the second phase of house count will begin. A total of 28,149 staffers from different provincial government departments are performing their Census-related duties in Sindh. They originally hail from Sindh government's education, local government, revenue, and other departments. These officials will be managing affairs during population and housing census.
Meanwhile, MQM's Parliamentary Group Leader in National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar has conveyed his reservation to the chief census commissioner Asif Bajwa against not mentioning of each floor and portion of flats/apartments in Karachi. However, the focal person Zahid Shah clarified that the enumerators are marking the plots during the house count while single statistical number is used for residential apartments but it would be divided flat-wise during headcount process.
According to the official 'Census Complaint Cell', established by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at the CM House, it has received numerous complaints regarding house count process. Zahid Shah said that the complaints would be addressed once the phases are completed.