KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, which has been facing strong criticism from its foes for not taking a bold stance over a federal cabinet decision to approve the controversial National Census 2017, said on Friday that the party was trying to find the basis to remain an ally of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government.

On Dec 22, the federal cabinet had okayed the census results and decided to send a report to the Council of Common Interests for according formal approval. The MQM-P is a part of the cabinet and it chose to express its opposition to the move by writing a mere dissenting note.

The MQM-P kept mum for the entire day on Dec 23, but Pakistan Peoples Party leader Taj Haider and Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal rejected the move to validate census results with the latter lashing out at the MQM-P for merely submitting a dissenting note and not opting for quitting the government over the issue.

Even the US-based Voice of Karachi that recently announced its organisational set-up in Karachi and Hyderabad directly accused the MQM-P of betraying the people of Karachi saying if it was really sincere with them it should have quit the government instead of becoming part of the cabinet’s decision.

The MQM-P broke its silence on Dec 24 when its convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told a press conference in Islamabad that his party was left with no option but to take to the streets in protest against the cabinet’s decision.

Khalid Maqbool says Muttahida to take people’s opinion whether to leave government or not

However, the press conference failed to impress his nemeses as PSP president Anis Kaimkhani in a statement termed it an attempt to hoodwink the people to avoid intense public outrage, and Sindh government’s spokesperson and PPP leader Murtaza Wahab, in a mocking tone, asked the MQM-P to quit the government instead of talking about taking to the streets.

In a damage-control move, the MQM-P held a press conference here on Friday and asked its opponent parties why all criticism was directed towards the Muttahida and not those who were also elected from Karachi or claiming to be a stakeholder of the city.

He said that the MQM-P had taken a strong stand as cabinet minister Aminul Haque of the party had rejected the cabinet’s move then and there by writing a strong-worded dissenting note. “Where are other people elected from Karachi?” he asked in a thinly veiled reference to the PTI which got majority seats in the metropolis in the 2018 general elections.

He recalled that when the MQM-P was forging a coalition with the PTI it was the first point of their agreement that the federal government would order an audit of five per cent census blocks of Karachi as a test case to confirm anomalies in the national exercise.

Dr Siddiqui said that it had been the biggest injustice that the real population of Karachi was never counted in any census that had ever taken place since independence.

He said that there were so many census blocks in Karachi where population was shown as zero despite the fact that a significant number of voters were enrolled from such blocks.

“It was an irony that over 25 million identity cards [have been] issued in this city to the citizens but the official population of Karachi stands at only 16 million,” he said.

He said that the MQM-P had recommended to a subcommittee on census that the last census had taken place after a delay of around eight years so the next census could be conducted eight years prior to the actual time. “The government should tell why it has not been taking decision despite having all available constitutional options,” he asked.

He said that the MQM-P had aired all concerns to the government and now it decided to approach the people to take their opinion for the party’s future course of action — whether to stay in government or not.

To a question, he said that the federal government had contacted the MQM-P on its reservations over the census approval by the cabinet.

Criticising the 18th Amendment, the MQM-P leader said that the government should know that Sindh’s urban areas were the biggest “victims” of this amendment.

He said that the country needed another constitutional amendment.

Dr Siddiqui lamented that the masterminds of the assassination of party leader Ali Raza Abidi were still not made public despite the passage of two years since his murder.

IT and Telecom Minister Aminul Haque, Kanwar Naveed Jameel and others were also present.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2020