ISLAMABAD: Following repo­rts that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) was seriously considering parting ways with the ruling alliance over “flawed” census results, the government has again assured the party that all its reservations would be addressed.

In a meeting with a government delegation on Wednesday, the MQM-P expressed serious reservations on the ongoing digital census and demanded that a committee be formed to “correct the statistics”, the party said in a statement.

The government delegation comprised federal ministers Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Saad Rafique. Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Tauqeer Shah and Chief Census Commissioner Nadeem Zafar were also present at the meeting.

The MQM-P team was represented by party convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and other leaders, including Syed Aminul Haq, Mustafa Kamal, Farooq Sattar and Hanif Javed.

Senior party leaders ask govt team to form committee to ‘correct statistics’

Later, Mr Kamal, the party’s senior deputy convener, told a news channel that it was the 11th meeting between the government and his party on the census issue. He claimed that Karachi’s population had exceeded 30 million, but it was counted at 16m in the current census.

“During the meeting, serious reservations were expressed about the figures of the census released so far,” the MQM-P press release said.

In the meeting, the party leaders also discussed the alleged irregularities of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in the digital census and demanded that the federal government fulfil its promises and direct authorities to count the population correctly. The party also demanded the formation of a committee to correct the statistics released so far.

On Tuesday, party sources said MQM-P had “collected resignations from its lawmakers” before its convener took up the census issue with Prime Minister Sheh­baz Sharif’s team on Wednesday.

In a Tuesday meeting, the party expressed reservations about the census and regretted that the federal government was not serious in addressing its grievances.

The MQM-P had confirmed to Dawn that it had decided in its meeting to collect resignations from all its seven MNAs and 21 MPAs before the party convener’s meeting with the premier to lend strength to the party’s stance.

The move coincided with the fe­­deral government’s decision to ex­­tend the digital census, scheduled to conclude on April 25, for five more days, after PBS’s field teams observed a negative growth in 12 major urban areas and nee­ded data verification in 11 major cities.

“The areas where the census timeline has been extended inc­lude Quetta, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi Central, Karachi South, Karachi West, Karachi East, Ma­­lir, Keamari, Korangi, Hyderabad and Islamabad,” the bureau said.

However, the agency’s statement failed to convince the party to review its stance on the digital headcount.

Mr Kamal said Tuesday’s meeting discussed loopholes in the census being conducted by PBS, the digital count conducted so far and all aspects of the exercise.

He said the MNAs who had submitted their resignations to the party convener resolved that they would not go to the assembly until their grievances were addressed.

The meeting appreciated the role of the prime minister and federal planning minister, who not only heard all their reservations but also issued directives to address them, Mr Kamal said. He said the MQM-P was part of the ruling coalition in the Centre and would remain with the government at challenging times.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023