PTI protests against ‘skewed’ census

PTI Karachi head says census done in 'bias manner' and party would not accept the manipulated count in any case

KARACHI:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) held a massive demonstration against the controversial digital census at Hyderi Market in North Nazimabad in Karachi.

The event saw the attendance of PTI Sindh and Karachi leadership, alongside a significant number of workers and women.

Addressing the participants at the MQM-P stronghold, the PTI Karachi President Aftab Siddiqui stated that the party began campaigning against the census from the day data came out.

Siddiqui argued that the population of Karachi was not less than 30 million but it was being undercounted to reduce its representation in the parliament and in distribution of resources.

He reminded that Karachi was the biggest tax-paying city in the country and ought to have facilities commensurate with the revenue it was putting in the provincial and the national coffers.

PTI Karachi head said the census was done in a bias manner and noted that the party would not accept the manipulated count in any case. Firdous Shamim Naqvi, a senior PTI leader, said correct census was a crucial issue because the delimitation of constituencies for the upcoming general elections would be based on it.

Naqvi called on all citizens to send a message that the counting should be accurate.

In his speech, Khurram Sher Zaman, the parliamentary leader of PTI in Sindh Assembly, noted that PTI aims to bring Imran Khan to the Sindh province. Zaman claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party had been in power in the province for 15 years and now its countdown has begun. After Punja and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, PTI would also form the government in Sindh this time.

PTI Karachi General Secretary and Member Provincial Assembly Arsalan Taj also criticized the census, arguing that the population of Karachi had been reduced by four per cent against the provincial count.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2023.