MQM-P, PPP to protest approval of census results

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Peoples Party Monday said that they would protest against the government if results of 2017 national census are approved without a post-enumeration audit of five percent census blocks. Talking to Business Recorder, the MQM-P lawmaker Iqbal Muhammad Ali said that the previous government of the PML-N had promised to conduct audit of the census blocks in Karachi, but this is yet to be materialised.
He said that his party would protest against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government if it tries to approve the census results without the audit of results as agreed upon by the previous government. "We have been pressing the PTI government too for the audit," he added.
The MQM-P is a coalition partner of the PTI government in the Centre, but the matter has to be finalised by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) where it does not have its representation.
Ali said that his party has repeatedly said that population of Karachi was counted much less than the actual one during the census and this needs to be re-verified through an audit of at least five percent census blocks.
On the other hand, the PPP leadership had also complained that population of interior Sindh was not counted properly during the census. The party had also demanded an audit of the provisional census data.
The then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had also constituted a committee comprising the PPP member to devise a mechanism to audit the provisional data, but it failed to do so.
PPP former Senator Taj Haider who was also part of the committee told Business Recorder that his party has serious reservations over the results of 2017 census.
"We will take up the issue on the floor of National Assembly and Senate if the government releases final results of the census without the audit," he said.
Haider said that the government should not show any haste over the issue as it is a sensitive matter.
The government officials, however, said that audit of the census results is not possible now as demographics keep changing in big cities like Karachi with the passage of time. "It is a dead issue now," they added.