GDA opts out of census moot

Labels PPP initiated multi-party confab 'theatrics'

KARACHI:

The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) has opted out of a multi-party conference initiated by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on issues concerning the on-going digital census, declaring it theatrics.

GDA's Sardar Abdul Rahim said that the party received an invitation to the conference scheduled for March 17 but after mutual consultation, decided not to participate.

He accused the PPP of staging a multi-party conference to sabotage the peaceful struggle against the digital census, saying that the PPP should stop playing games with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-Pakistan).

"The current census is no different from the fraudulent elections of 2018," he said while accusing the PPP of cutting a deal to cling to power.

Most Sindh parties, including the PPP, the MQM-P, GDA and Sindhi nationalists have raised a variety of issues concerning the census and its modalities.

"Tablets do not work in remote areas," said PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro had said while talking about the moot earlier this week. "The families do not get any receipt and do not have any idea if all the family members are counted and registered," he had added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2023.