Census reservations
\n Karachi
\nAs a rift between Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the coalition government continues over the ongoing digital census, the party has sought resignations from its members of national and provincial assemblies and Senate, sources told Geo News on Tuesday.
\nAccording to the sources privy to the development, the party has reservations over the procedure of the census in Karachi and Hyderabad.
\nIn January, MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui iterated that his party had withdrawn a contract of saving and forming governments in their bid to break away from the conventional tactics to pressurise governments.
\n\u201cStreets are our house [assembly]. Now, we will settle and build it,\u201d he added.
\nDr Siddiqui\u2019s comments came during a presser held to rejoice over the \u201clow turnout\u201d in local government polls earlier this year, which it termed \u201crigged\u201d in the Karachi and Hyderabad divisions.
\nThe party was against conducting local body elections in the two divisions until new delimitation was done and had also threatened to quit the coalition government.
\nMeanwhile, the party has shared serious objections over census figures so far in a meeting held with members of its Coordination Committee \u2013commonly known as Rabita Committee.
\n\u201cThe Rabita Committee expressed concerns over the non-serious attitude of rulers regarding the census,\u201d the party spokesperson said in a statement.
\nIn the meeting, presided by Dr Siddiqui, the party members discussed inaccurate statistics despite conducting meetings with ministers and relevant authorities, and presenting evidence against irregularities.
\nThe MQM-P has been insistently against the ongoing first digital census \u2014 which is the seventh national census in the country \u2014 in Karachi and Hyderabad, largely sharing its concerns over Sindh government employees executing the task.
\nThe party has, since the census began, demanded a fresh census conducted by an impartial and private sector company.
\nLast month, senior party leader Farooq Sattar said that MQM-P\u2019s doubts were true after Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) chief statistician Dr Naeem Uz Zafar commented on Karachi\u2019s population.
\nThe former Karachi mayor was of the view that the Sindh population of urban areas is being shown less and in rural areas, it is being shown more than the actual figures by the census authorities.<\/p>\n
Dr Sattar feared that Karachi\u2019s population would be shown 66% less than its actual head count. The provincial government is committing rigging in the census by their \u201cown enumerators\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
The MQM-Pakistan, in its statement, said that important decisions have been made regarding the party\u2019s future course of action with regard to the abuse meted out towards the citizens of Karachi and Sindh in the ongoing census.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe MQM-P will inform the public through media about the future action plan after further consultation,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
The party, which is part of the coalition government in Islamabad, also discussed the country\u2019s political and economic situation in detail, as well as deliberated over its various organisational matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Census reservations Karachi As a rift between Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the coalition government continues over the ongoing digital census, the party has sought resignations from its members of national and provincial assemblies and Senate, sources told Geo News on Tuesday. According to the sources privy to the development, the party has reservations over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-327426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n