PSP will never accept ‘flawed’ census results: Kamal

By Our Correspondent
January 18, 2021

KARACHI: Showing his anger over the recent decision of the federal cabinet to approve the controversial National Census-2017, Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal on Sunday said such decisions could cause a growing sense of alienation among the Karachiites.

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Addressing a rally, which started from Nursery and ended at the Karachi Press Club, Mustafa Kamal said the census data in Karachi had not been accurately recorded and the population of the metropolis was not less than 30 million. He said his party would never accept the ‘flawed’ census results, as it was a matter of life and death for the city’s residents. He also lashed out at the Pakistan People’s Party, saying the current result of flawed census suited the ruling party in Sindh, dominated by the feudal lords because the accurate census result would harm them politically.

The PSP chairman said by approving the controversial census result of Karachi, the PTI-led federal government is causing a sense of deprivation that was paving the way for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and PPP’s agenda of hate politics on ethnic grounds. The PSP chief said Prime Minister Imran Khan did not do a single work in the city but he did not call Imran Khan ‘selected’ or ‘incompetent’. “We have neither joined the PDM nor supported the PDM”.

The PTI Sindh leadership is not loyal to the PM, he said. Moreover, Imran Khan has made coalition with the thieves, who would continue to change their loyalties for their vested interests.

In future, the same party would be a partner with Zardari, if his party would be in power. It would begin cursing the PTI just after the day the government would finish its tenure. Kamal asked the PM who had encircled him.

Mustafa Kamal said the prime minister should not approve the illegitimate census, saying we have been demanding this census to be declared controversial and invalid because if it would not happen, the next seven generations would not be counted correctly. Both the PTI and MQM-P have struck a deal at the cost of the people of Karachi. Appealing to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of showing less population of Karachi, Kamal said the real population can easily be known if he summoned the record of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and voters list of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The PSP chairman demanded a fair census for Karachi so the Mohajirs, Sindhis, Pakhtuns, and Punjabis, etc, could get their due rights as the number of national and provincial assembly seats in Karachi would be increased as per their true population. Kamal asked the rulers to carefully listen to the decision of Karachiites in the grand rally and the protest against the approval of controversial census, and then decide whether “you count us correctly, or else we would come to you to make you count us correctly?”

“The rally and demonstration is just a trailer and if the census has not been carried out accurately, we would shut down the city, and would stage sit-ins across the city till the demand would be approved,” he said. We would make it difficult for the rulers to even walk through the city, he said. “Give us our right. The state has been afraid to count us accurately for the last seventy years,” he said. Karachi is the economic lifeline of the country. Karachi city is home to 50 percent of the people of Sindh. If the census is done correctly, the population of Karachi at present stands at 55 percent.

Now a silent revolution has been taking place, the suppressed population of rural Sindh has also been moving rapidly to cities to get freed from the clutches of tyrant rulers and feudals. Kamal said at least 30 percent of the population has been living in goths and dehs, while 70 percent has been living in the cities; however, around 80 percent of the candidates are winning from the slots designated to the rural Sindh, which is unjust. He said the time has ended of those who have been usurping the rights of Karachi for the last 40 years on the basis of creed and colour.

Mustafa Kamal said Karachi has been presenting a pathetic look, the transport system was getting awkward and the government failed to give a viable transport system to the Karachiites, while the civic infrastructure has already been dilapidated, roads and streets are ruined, healthcare and education are poor. “Despite this grim situation, the Karachiites had remained silent but now Karachi would not remain silent on the issue of their underrepresented and headcount results. Thirty million people of the city would go to any length.”

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