MQM-P warns it will reject Karachi’s head count if it’s less than 30m

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan chief Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Monday said that his party and the people of Karachi would never accept the population count of the city if declared less than 30 million mark.

Accompanied by MQM’s Coordination Committee members, Dr Siddiqui said at a press conference on Monday that under a conspiracy, the population of Karachi and Hyderabad was undercounted.

He said the MQM had repeatedly informed the federal government and other relevant authorities in a timely fashion about the irregularities being committed in the census drive. He said the MQM had waged a struggle at every level to ensure a fair census drive in the urban parts of Sindh.

Owing to MQM’s hard work, six million people in Karachi were enumerated after they were left uncounted by the census officials, said Siddiqui, adding, “Questions should be asked how come the census drive was going to be concluded on April 8 without counting these six million people.”

He said that every person living in the provincial capital should be properly counted in the census as the city generates huge revenue to run the entire country. Latest technology should be employed for population counting of Karachi.

Dr Siddiqui demanded a commission to probe the issue of phenomenal rise in the population of rural Sindh in the latest census. He said MQM has sent letters to all the relevant quarters for resolving this controversy in a legal manner.

The MQM chief hoped that the federal government would soon formally announce the results of the latest census drive and said that delimitation of the constituencies should be carried out afresh on the basis of census results before the forthcoming general polls in the country.

He said it was the MQM’s demand that general polls should be held in the country transparently without any delay. He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Federal Bureau of Statistics for listening to the viewpoint of MQM in this regard.

He warned of grave consequences if the government failed to announce valid results of the latest census campaign. He said genuine representatives of the people of Sindh would get the chance of coming into power on the basis of a fair census drive in the province.