KARACHI: A Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senator on Wednesday dem­an­ded the government provide some degree of “recognition” to Bur­mese Rohingyas and other “illegal ali­ens” chiefly residing in Sindh’s capital.

Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who was recently elected on a Senate seat vacated by PPP’s Saeed Ghani, said that despite residing illegally on the soil of Sindh, Rohingya Muslims and others should be given some rights that helped them at least live a life without constant fear.

A section of media quoted him on Wednesday as demanding on a point of order in the Senate to provide Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) to hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas residing in Sindh, mainly in Karachi.

The report gave the impression that it reflected the Pakistan Peoples Party’s official policy and sparked sharp criticism from the Sindhi nationalists, particularly on social media.

Barrister Wahab said in the recent census, the ‘illegal aliens’ had not been counted as residents of Sindh, which, in addition to several other loopholes, had deprived the province of the actual population it actually bore.

“The very numbers, which have been used in the census data vis-à-vis Sindh are contradictory; Sindh’s population should have been at least 58 million instead of the present 48 million,” said the PPP senator.

He said the ‘illegal aliens’ were living a life of constant fear; fear from the police and law enforcement agencies; fear of not getting healthcare from state-run hospitals; and even in getting their livelihoods.

“They should be counted in any form, and given certain documents — short of voting rights — to live a decent life,” he said, adding that most of those people had not got documents from the National Alien Registration Authority (NARA), though a significant number of individuals from this community and Afghan refugees had got CNICs through various means.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, head of the Sindh United Party, claimed that Sindh PPP president Nisar Khuhro, also a provincial minister, had recently spoken in a rally of illegal ‘aliens’ in which he had supported issuing of CNICs to Burmese, Bangladeshis and others.

“The PPP has a penchant to lure foreigners into its fold,” said Mr Shah while speaking to Dawn. “It is not the first time that the PPP leaders and parliamentarians are demanding citizenship rights for foreigners.”

He said the PPP had been vying to convert “foreigners” into Pakistanis for decades, though, the irony remained that once those foreigners became Pakistanis, they never voted for the PPP.

“The PPP has never learned from its tactic to draw in foreigners by giving them citizens’ rights. But, this never widened its constituency. None of those foreigners vote [for] them.

“The PPP should make its base bigger through its performance instead of going through such shortcuts, which [have] never paid.”

Mr Shah, however, said everyone who was living on the soil of Sindh should be counted, and this included millions of refugees and illegal ‘aliens’.

“They should not be given citizenship as being demanded through opaque designs; whosoever does this will do great injustice to the people of Pakistan,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2017