MQM-P to hold rally against 'rigged' census results in Karachi today

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) is all set to hold a public rally today (Sunday) against alleged injustices with Sindh in ‘national census’ by understating the population figure of Karachi.  

The party activists and supporters kept on rallying across the city on Saturday night in a bid to mobilize the masses to attend Sunday’s public meeting. The party has set up several camps across the city.

All arrangements have been finalised as the rally is expected to kick-off around 2pm. The top leadership including Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar and Khawaja Izharul Hassan inspected the arrangements on late Sunday night.

In a press conference earlier this week, MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar announced that his party would hold a public rally against, what he claimed, ‘rigged data’ of the census results.

“The population figure for Karachi has been marked down [as] it could not be less than 30 million,” Sattar said in a press conference on Nov 1.

Right to protest is the political right which has been guaranteed by the constitution, hence the party will hold a public rally despite a refusal from authorities concerned, said Sattar.

“Denying permission for the rally is yet another injustice to us,” he asserted then.

In a response to a question, Sattar said the provincial government denied them a permission to hold a public meeting after Sindh Grand Alliance announced to hold a rally on Nov 5 (Sunday).

It is apropos to highlight here that an anti-PPP coalition of political parties, Sindh Grand Alliance, is also holding a public rally at Mazar-e-Quaid (mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah) today.

Earlier, MQM-P had announced to stage a protest against census results in mid-September but later it was called off due to security concerns.

The sixth Housing and Population Census began after a period of 19 years on March 15.