KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is set to hold a multi-party conference (MPC) on Friday (today) to discuss its ‘reservations’ over ongoing digital census in the country.

A PPP Sindh spokesman said that the conference, which would be held in a Karachi hotel, was expected to be attended by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Shah Mohammad Shah of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Syed Sadruddin Shah of the PML-Functional, which is a part of the Grand Democratic Alliance, Shahi Syed of the Awami National Party and others have been invited to the meeting, he said.

“Nationalist leaders Dr Qadir Magsi, Ayaz Latif Palijo, Sanan Qureshi, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Riaz Chandio, Lal Jarwar and others are also invited,” he added.

Meanwhile, MQM-P sources said that the party ‘would not be able’ to attend the conference due to engagements of their leaders on the occasion of a Foundation Day rally scheduled to be held on Saturday.

The GDA on the other hand ‘rejected’ the conference, calling it a ‘political stunt’.

GDA spokesman Sardar Abdul Rahim said: “We don’t accept the invitation and reject the multi-party conference by PPP. In fact, to sabotage the peaceful struggle against the digital census, the PPP has staged a multi-party conference.”

The Sindh United Party had also declared that it would not attend the moot.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2023