Senior Deputy Convener of MQM Dr Farooq Sattar has expresses his concerns about the maiden ongoing digital census and declared the process is “rigged”, stating that the digital data of the seventh census released by the head of the statistical office will not be accepted in any case, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In a press conference at Bahadurabad Centre in Karachi on Tuesday, he alleged that the population of Karachi is being undercounted while the population of rural Sindh is being overestimated.
He also suggested that the census be conducted again through the private sector in a neutral way in the areas where complaints are being made.
“About 46 percent of Karachi's population has been enumerated, but there are thousands of houses which have not yet been numbered,” he maintained and cast down doubts on the census numbers, saying Karachi’s population has been planned to show a maximum of 20 million.
“We have strong reservation on the census carried out by provincial government,” he added.
The MQM leader claimed that if the census is accurate, the next chief minister will be from Karachi.
Farooq Sattar berated the government, claiming that they were denied access to the census data and dashboard and that if the census is inaccurate, the upcoming elections will not transparent.
Reporter: Shoaib Mukhtar