PM wants MQM-P census reservations addressed

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday issued directives to relevant authorities to resolve the concerns and issues of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) over the ongoing census.

In a statement released by the PM’s Office, the development came during a meeting between the premier and MQM-P delegation comprising Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Information Technology and Telecommunication Minister Syed Aminul Haque while Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was also present.

During the meeting, the MQM-P delegation congratulated the prime minister for the legislation of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, the statement read.

The delegation shared their reservations with the prime minister regarding the ongoing digital census in Pakistan and also informed him about the issues of Karachi. A day earlier, MQM-P senior leader Farooq Sattar rejected the ongoing first-ever digital census — which is the seventh national census in the country — being conducted by the Sindh government employees.

The party’s decision came days after Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) chief statistician Dr Naeem Uz Zafar said that “it is not necessary that Karachi’s population will show as 30 million” after the census.

Sattar expressed fears that a plan has been devised to show less population than the actual headcount of Sindh’s urban areas.

“46% of the population in Karachi has been counted,” he said, adding that it seemed that the total population of the metropolis would be shown around 20 million in the census.

The MQM-P leader also demanded a fresh census conducted by an impartial and private sector company. He also asked for access to the census data.