JI insists 15 million citizens remain uncounted in Karachi census.

KARACHI -- The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on Thursday claimed that some 15 million Karachiites remained uncounted in the enumeration process, warning that the 'fraud' in the name of digital census will not be accepted and the party will approach judiciary against the 'flawed exercise'.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Idara Noor-i-Haq, the JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman alleged that the authorities removed the data of the 2017 census from the website in order to conceal their misdeeds.

'We had made it clear in the Islamabad meeting that we don't want mere extensions [in deadlines]. The basic demand is to count Karachiites in full,' he said. 'The authorities had also assured us that they were extending the cut off date for the census exercise to ensure that each and every person is covered. However, the government failed to keep the promise and, instead compromised with the PPP to protect the latter's interests,' he alleged.

He referred to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data which suggested that some 38,000 high-rise buildings in the city were not covered during the census and, in some cases, only the names of the heads of families living on the first few floors were registered, whereas even the houses on the rest of floors were not counted.

'Jamaat-i-Islami has...