PTI, JI set up citywide camps to highlight flaws in census

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have started aggressive public campaigns against flaws in the ongoing census by organising protest camps and going door to door.

“The PTI has set up protest camps at 29 places in 25 towns to organise public rallies against the fake census today [Friday],” said Karachi PTI President Aftab Siddiqui while chairing a meeting of the party leaders and workers at the Insaf House.

The participants of the meeting included Khurrum Sher Zaman and Arslan Taj. They discussed the party’s campaign against the census. Siddiqui said the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government in Sindh was making every possible effort to suppress the PTI’s voice against the census.

He said the PTI was not only running a door-to-door campaign but also organising a conference on the issue of census. Traders and other stakeholders had been invited to the conference, he added.

The meeting discussed the communication campaign for the party’s drive against the census. It was said that handbills and banners had been distributed in Orangi Town, Jinnah Town, Model Town and other areas and local representatives of the PTI had set up camps regarding the campaign.

Siddiqui said that traffic flow would not be disturbed because of the PTI’s grand protest to be held on May 1 Meanwhile, the JI has also set up camps at various locations of the city to raise awareness about flaws in the headcount.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the party said it would hold a march on April 30 on Sharea Faisal against understating the people of Karachi in the ongoing census.

The party said that as part of the awareness campaign, a large number of camps would be set up across the city, whereas handbills would also be distributed outside mosques after the Friday prayers, as well as in markets and busy spots in the city.

The party said its women wing had also started working to ensuring massive participation of women in the march. Earlier on Tuesday, while addressing a party convention, Karachi JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman demanded that the citizens of Karachi be provided access to the census data. He said it was the only solution to the census controversy.

He appealed to the people of Karachi to overwhelmingly participate in the party’s protest on Sharea Faisal on April 30. He said the authorities had missed the enumeration process in a large number of areas in order to understate the population of Karachi and now they were resorting to misleading and cosmetic measures as they were unable to handle the backlash.