KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has accused the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government and media institutions of deliberately showing a lower population count in urban areas of Sindh as “part of a conspiracy.”
MQM-P convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui claimed the population of Karachi would have been shown as only 14.4 million if the party had not intervened, and that the date for the census had been extended by 15 days due to their demand.
Siddiqui urged people to participate in the census and stated that the concerns of MQM-P were legitimate. He also said the government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had realised their mistake and that rural areas of Sindh were satisfied with the census process.
Another MQM-P leader, Syed Mustafa Kamal, expressed his gratitude to the party for demanding a transparent census, which resulted in identifying mistakes in the population count of Karachi. He mentioned that evidence was presented to officials to correct the mistakes.
It is important to note that the allegations made by MQM-P have not been verified independently.
