MQM-P, PSP voice serious concerns over census results

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) once again on Tuesday voiced serious concerns over the provisional results of the sixth population census, demanding that the actual results should be released.

Addressing a press conference, Anees Ahmed advocate branded the census result a fraud with the people of the province. “PSP outright rejects the results and demands of the authorities to release the actual figures of the population residing in the province, particularity in the metropolis.”

Two show the figures less than the actual for personal motives and unfair distribution of resources between the provinces may prove dangerous for the country’s development, he said.

Anees said despite the fact that large number of people from the upcountry continue to come to the financial hub in floods in search of livelihood, the population had shown no major difference since the last census in 1998.

He said his party would write to the Supreme Court, Pakistan Army and the country’s top bureaucracy to take notice of their grievance. Since the census was carried out with the help of the army, Chief of Army Staff ought to take notice of the ‘manipulated’ results to uphold the repute of his force, he said.

Anees said some people wished to destroy the people of small provinces by using nukes. He announced that his party would launch a campaign against the census results after Eidul Azha.

MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar while addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club said the results were rigged and demanded the release of the actual figures.

He said the results were deliberately understated and that as a result of the census, the three major cities, including Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur will have to bear the brunt.

Karachi’s actual population is around 30 million but it has been reported to be 10.6 million,” he said.

Earlier, he had announced to take out rallies against the census result.

Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) senior member and opposition leader of National Assembly Khursheed Shah has cast doubts on the provincial report of sixth housing and population census. “Records of the Statistics Division and the Pakistan Army should be compared,” he stressed.

“The facts will come out, once the two census records are compared,” he added.

It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday announced provisional census report showing the country’s current population at 207.7 million against 132 million that was estimated in the last census in 1998.

The census report was made public after the Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting last week.