ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Thursday contacted Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and sought ‘proof of flaws’ in the process. The move came following serious reservations over the ongoing digital census from MQM and after Prime Minister’s directions to the planning ministry to redress the MQM’s reservations. The government’s coalition party MQM-P has threatened to resign from the government after several areas in Karachi and Hyderabad were “neglected during digital census”. The PBS officials penned down a letter to senior deputy convener of MQM-P Dr Farooq Sattar and asked to identify the areas and buildings that were ‘neglected’ in the census. DNA
The bureau assured that the census team will visit the neglected areas before April 30. In a statement, the PBS officials said Pakistan’s first digital census was supposed to be completed by April 4, but the deadline has been increased several times due to various reasons. The latest extension in the census date was due to the Eid holidays, which pushed the deadline to April 30th.
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday directed Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal to address the reservations of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) regarding the ongoing population census at the earliest.
The prime minister issued the directives during a meeting with a delegation of the MQM led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, which called on him here. Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal was present at the meeting.
During the meeting, they discussed the overall political situation in the country. The MQM delegation thanked the prime minister for playing his role to address the party’s reservations to a great extent.
The delegation comprised MQM Convenor and MNA Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Federal Information Technology and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haq, former MNA Farooq Sattar, and former Senator Mustafa Kamal.
