Meeting stakeholders: Sindh wants to discuss census in CCI

CM says PPP Sindh to hold conference on Feb 21 to forge consensus

KARACHI: The upcoming census is an issue of life and death for Sindh and we will not allow the federal government to delay it, said Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah while talking to a delegation of various politicians, nationalists and social workers.

The delegation observed that Sindh has been denied representation in the census commission, and urged Shah to take up the issue in the Council of Common Interests (CCI). On this, the chief minister (CM) said the CCI meeting has not been convened for the past nine months. "I have sent at least three letters to the federal government for convening the meeting so pending issues could be discussed but all my requests have fallen on deaf ears," he deplored, adding that nevertheless, he would write a fourth letter directly addressing it to the prime minister this time hoping that he would understand the gravity of the situation.

The CM said he has started forming ward committees for the census. "I would urge all the political forces to cooperate with our committees and give their input," he said. "Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh has also convened an all parties conference on the issue of census on February 21 in which all political forces, including nationalists, would be invited to develop a consensus," informed Shah.

The delegation and the CM referred to a federal minister's statement that the sky would not fall if the census was postponed. Terming the statement immature, they said the "sky would definitely fall if the census is postponed."

The visiting delegation was led by Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-Functional MPA Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, PML-Nawaz MPA Haji Shafi Jamote, nationalist leader Syed Ghulam Shah, and social workers Zulfikar Halipoto and Jawed Qazi. The meeting was also attended by senior minister Nisar Khuhro, CM's special assistant Waqar Mehdi, PPP Karachi chief Najmi Alam, Karachi commissioner Asif Haider Shah and AIG Mushtaq Maher.

The CM also constituted a committee under Khuhro and Rashdi to take all parliamentary forces into confidence on the issue of census.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2016.