The Federal Government’s coalition party Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has expressed strong reservations about the recent digital census and refused to accept its results.
According to the details, the MQM-P leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui penned down a letter to the federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal, regarding the population census conducted in Sindh.A copy of which has also been sent to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Chief Statistician Institute Naeem Uz Zafar. In the letter, MQM-P has expressed its strong reservations about the recent digital population census, stating that there are undeniable evidences of deliberate irregularities in the census conducted in Karachi and Hyderabad.
MQM alleges that these fake numbers were intended to deprive the residents of urban areas of Sindh of their political and economic rights. The letter further stated that the population figures have been deliberately manipulated to reduce the population of urban Sindh. “The results of the seventh digital population census, including Karachi and Hyderabad, have been rejected not only by MQM but also by other parties, civil society, and stakeholders,” Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui stated.
Khalid Maqbool questioned the possibility of increase in population by 23% to 49% in Jacobabad, Kashmore, Shikarpur, Larkana, Sukkur, Khairpur, Sanghar, Sehwan, Umerkot, and Tharparkar, while in comparison, the increase in population by 13% to 16% in Karachi and 18% in Hyderabad.
MQM-P’s leader has emphasized the need for further steps to ensure the accuracy of the population census and to address the concerns raised during the census, particularly in urban areas of Sindh and Karachi. They have demanded that the objections raised regarding the population census in different parts of the country, especially in urban areas of Sindh and Karachi, be addressed, and time be allocated for investigation, verification, and rectification after the census.
In his letter, the MQM-P leader stressed the need to take further steps to ensure the accurate census and demanded to address their reservations regarding the census in various parts of the country, especially the urban areas of Sindh and Karachi, while time should be allocated for investigation, verification and rectification after the census.
