MQM-P PROTESTS ‘IRREGULARITIES IN CENSUS’

Govt agrees to address MQM-P’s census reservations,

According to details, MQM-P leaders met a high-level delegation comprising of federal ministers Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Saad Rafique.

Prime Minister Principal Secretary Tauqeer Shah and Chief Census Commissioner Nadeem Zafar were also present at the meeting.

During the meeting, serious reservations were expressed about the figures of the census released so far. Sources told ARY News that the MQM-P leaders also tabled the irregularities of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in digital census.

They also protested the ‘injustice’ by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led Sindh government. They demanded the federal government to “fulfill its promises and instructs the authorities concerned to count the population correctly’.

The federal government Wednesday agreed to address the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) reservations over the ongoing digital census — the seventh in the country’s history — after reports surfaced that the party had asked its lawmakers to hand in their resignations.The delegation — headed by the party’s Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui — that held a meeting with the ministers in Islamabad included Syed Mustafa Kamal, Farooq Sattar, Syed Amin Ul Haque and Javed Haneef.

The government’s delegation comprised Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Chief Commissioner for census Dr Naeem Uz Zafar.

The News reported that cracks have appeared in the ranks of MQM-P leaders over the issue of staying or leaving the coalition government amid reservations on the digital census.

As such, the party has issued two contradictory statements following a key session of its Coordination Committee. According to informed sources, various leaders of the party expressed serious reservations about the census.

They were of the view that the Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were gaining political strength over the issue of census, while the MQM-P, being a coalition partner, was finding it hard to build its narrative on the census while the elections were round the corner.

During the meeting, some lawmakers also presented their resignations to Dr Siddiqui, who chaired the meeting, which was attended by senior deputy conveners Kamal, Dr Sattar and Nasreen Jalil as well as deputy conveners Anis Kaimkhani, Abdul Waseem and others.

The initial statement issued by the party said the Coordination Committee discussed political and economic affairs of the country, census and other important issues. The party had approached various forums for rectification of the census process but they were not heard, the statement read.

However, the statement did not mention the submission of resignations by some members of the National Assembly to the party chief. It added that the party would soon announce its future course of action regarding the census and share it with the media.