SUKKUR: Sindh Senior Minister for Food and Parliamentary Affairs Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that the data of house count and headcount must be shared with political forces immediately after completion of the process in each district.

He was speaking at a press conference after presiding over a meeting of Pakistan Peoples Party’s Larkana division leadership here on Thursday. The party’s organisational affairs, ongoing census process, matters relating to the next general elections and several other issues, besides preparations for the PPP founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s death anniversary were discussed at the meeting.

The government’s intention to take the results to Islamabad and keep them secret for months was creating apprehensions, he said, arguing that the data could be manipulated with mala fide intention.

He said the Sindh chief minister had already conveyed PPP’s reservations in this regard to the federal government but there had been no response from the other side until it was decided to move the judiciary for transparency in the process. Mr Khuhro observed that people’s hopes with regard to justice in the Panama leaks case were meeting disappointment. He said the prime minister [Nawaz Sharif], who was supposed to be Sadiq (truthful) and Ameen (trustworthy) had been changing his statements [regarding his undeclared assets] frequently in parliament and in court. He had already termed one such statement he had made on the floor of the house ‘political’, Mr Khuhro added.

HYDERABAD: Later, Mr Khuhro proceeded to Hyderabad and spoke to the media at the residence of PPP Hyderabad division chapter president Ali Nawaz Shah Rizvi in the evening.

He repeated his views about the status of the Panama Papers case. He said that documents and evidence had already been presented before the court.

He said it was ridiculous if the premier’s statement on the floor of the house was not taken as correct.

Regarding the recent visit to Sindh by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Mr Khuhro said that he [the PM] was delivering his farewell speeches, adding that he was not doing any favour to Sindh by announcing some projects [to be executed] with public money that also belonged to Sindh.

Mr Khuhro noted that the PM’s announcements of billions of rupees for development work in Tharparkar were not actualised previously.

He said the PPP was waiting as to when the name of [Federal Finance Minister] Ishaq Dar was put on the exit control list (ECL) as he had confessed to having committed money laundering. He said that it was the same PM who had announced Kalabagh dam project and now [during his current tenure] ‘theft’ was being committed in the census.

Mr Khuhro, who is also the provincial president of the PPP, said census should not be made controversial and its statistics should not be kept confidential.

“It will lead to suspicion if figures of census are not declared for several months,” he said.

“Why the figures are being kept confidential or secret? The federal government is showing mala fide intention,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2017