PPP opposes Senate body’s recommendation to hold fresh census in Karachi

ISLAMABAD: Member Core Committee of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Taj Haider has expressed his deep disappointment on the recommendation of the Standing Committee of the Senate on Interior that fresh census of population should be held in Karachi Division.

“In his submissions to another Standing Committee of the Senate that of parliamentary Affairs on 7th September, he had submitted the comparison between the average household sizes in all districts of Sindh as obtained in the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) of 2014 and the average household size in the same districts obtained in Census 2017,” he said in a statement on Saturday.

Taj Haider said besides the overall general substantial decrease in average household size in all districts of Sindh in 3 years, it was seen that this decrease was much higher in districts of Sindh other than the six districts of Karachi. He said the population of Sindh had been undercounted to a much greater degree in the rest of Sindh than it had been undercounted in Karachi.

Taj Haider said the Standing Committee of the Senate on Parliamentary Affairs, chaired by Senator Sassui Palijo, had wisely recommended in this meeting that the agreement between all political parties in the Senate to hold Post Enumeration Survey (PES) on 5% randomly selected population blocks all over Pakistan should be implemented in order to correct the misleading figures of Census 2017.

He said the recommendation made by the Standing Committee of the Senate on Interior very unfortunately implies separation of Karachi from Sindh and weakening of the Federation. “No wonder that MQM-P the very next day has come up with the repetition of its old divisive demand of creating a separate Karachi province,” he said.

Senator Taj Haider said that the Founder of MQM as well as its many leaders who managed to leave Pakistan after making billons through looting Urban Sindh on gunpoint had now reorganised themselves as MQM-London. “They are shamelessly raising anti-Pakistan slogans and indulging in all anti-Pakistan activities on the biddings of Indian-Israeli-American military axis,” he said.

Taj Haider said the MQM-P leaders very well know that that the demand for division of Sindh is in fact aimed at paving the way for dismemberment of Pakistan.

Taj Haider asserted that Sindh shall never be divided and the people of Pakistan shall never allow a single millimeter of their country to be separated from their motherland. He advised the Senate Standing Committee on Interior to review their recommendation on a recount of in Karachi alone and demand implementation of the All Parties Agreement on recount in randomly selected 5% population blocks covering the entire Pakistan.