PPP rejects census, announces holding of APC

MQM plans protest rally against census results

HYDERABAD/ KARACHI: Following the opposition parties in the province, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has also rejected the census results. In a policy statement issued on Monday, the Sindh government announced to convene an all parties conference (APC) on the issue.

Parliamentary Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, in the statement, said that a conspiracy was hatched by the federal government to show less population of Sindh.  "This aims at reducing Sindh's share in the National Finance Commission as well as national and provincial assembly seats and job quota in federal government services," he said, adding that the PPP government in Sindh will not accept this conspiracy.

The PPP government in Sindh will not succumb to any pressure and will take this issue at every forum, Khuhro announced.  "This is a serious issue and we will take it at the upcoming Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting."



Khuhro, who is also the PPP Sindh chapter president, diverted the media attention towards mismanagement during the census exercise. "We made hue and cry over unfair practice by the census staff, but no one heeded to us," he said, adding that officials of the census department did not take notice of the fact that their staff could not reach many areas of Sindh.

Khuhro was of the view that the census figures will negatively affect Sindh's share in water distribution, natural resources and divisible pool. "In every sector, federal government creates problems for us, but we will get our rights come what may," he asserted. Announcing all parties conference on the issue, Khuhro said, "We will consult with all major parties and will devise line of action".

Opposition parties

Opposition parties in Sindh continued to raise objections over the census figures on Monday.

Convener of census monitoring committee of the Sindhi nationalist parties Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah rejected the provisional census results of 2017 at a press conference in Hyderabad.



"The census shows a marginal increase of only 2.41 percent in Sindh's population. Whereas, the population has grown by at least 3.73 percent," maintained Shah, who also heads Sindh United Party and is a former deputy speaker of Sindh Assembly.

He compared the percentage of population growth of Sindh with other provinces and raised questions about the authenticity of figures which show Khyber Pakhtunkhwa leading the other provinces. "Around 3 to 3.5 million Afghanis, Burmese, Bengalis and people of other origins living in Sindh have not been counted as Sindh's population," he claimed.

"Though these people are not residents of Sindh but they have been using resources of the province," he remarked. He accused the Sindh government of failing to fulfil its obligation of ensuring a transparent census. "Now they [PPP] are objecting to the results. Why did the CM not do the same in the CCI's meeting?" Shah questioned.

On behalf of the monitoring committee, Shah asked the PPP leadership to identify the areas which were left in the census exercise. Shah warned that if the controversies surrounding the 2017 census are not removed, the federation may get affected.

Meanwhile, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement - Pakistan (MQM-Pakistan) has also decided to take to streets against the census results in which, according to the party, the population of Karachi was deliberately shown less than the actual.



According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the population of the financial hub of the country stood at 16.o5 million in 2017 and grew only 61.4% since 1998.

Addressing a general workers meeting of the party at a football ground in PIB Colony, Karachi on Sunday evening, MQM-Pakistan Convener Farooq Sattar announced that the party will take out a protest rally within 48 to 72 hours. He invited other parties who share a similar stance on the results to join the rally. The formal announcement of the demonstration is expected today (Tuesday).

Sattar said the census results were a part of conspiracy to minus the MQM from urban areas of Sindh. The census results show that 1.4 million people of the city were missing, he commented satirically. "Population of Karachi is over 30 million and we condemn the injustice done to this city in the census," he said.

The Muhajir Qaumi Movement - Haqiqi and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) have also rejected the census results and called the figures as an attempt to usurp the rights of residents of the urban centres of the province.