SC to hear PSP's petition against census results after polls

ISLAMABAD: Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal on Friday said the Supreme Court has accepted his petition challenging the provisional results of 6^th population census and the case will be taken up after general elections. 

Talking to journalists on the premises of the apex court, he said the chief justice of Pakistan will hear the case after the polls scheduled on July 25. He added that the CJP heard and accepted his arguments with regard to findings of census.

The PSP chief questioned how Karachi’s population, which stood at more than 20 million in 2013, was counted to be 16 million in 2017.

Kamal said his party will fully take part in the polls at any cost.

Earlier, the PSP through its chief had filed a petition at the apex court’s Karachi registry, pleading with the Chief Justice Pakistan to take notice of the findings of the census.

In the petition, he argued that the population of the country’s largest city stands at 21.5 million as per record of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). However, the population has been deliberately reduced to 16 million.

The petitioner claimed there were many areas in the city which were left out of the census. The city’s population has been deliberately understated, which reflected prejudice on the part of the authorities concerned, he lamented.

He said census teams didn’t seek help of Nadra to gather the exact data about residents of the city, nor was any third-party audit carried out to cross-check the findings. Understating Karachi’s population is a ploy to usurp its resources, he claimed.

The PSP chief pleaded that an audit of the census figures be carried out by a third part to determine its veracity.

The court was further pleaded to order the authorities concerned to increase seats of the national and provincial assemblies in the city.