KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday staged demonstrations across the city in protest over the ‘flawed’ census in Karachi.
The protests were held at 29 different points of the city where the PTI had also set up camps to register the public sentiment and guide them to get registered in the ongoing census.
The party blamed a ‘nexus’ between ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and its partner in the Centre, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), for “silently making a deal” with the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, ‘compromising’ over the rights of urban Sindh.
The demonstrations were held in all seven districts on key arteries, roads and traffic intersections where the leaders of the opposition party addressed the participants including women and children.
Carrying placards, banners and party flags, the demonstrators chanted slogans against the PDM government for ‘failure’ on all fronts and ‘wasting’ huge resources in the name of digital census.
They blamed the parties in the ruling coalition for their “criminal silence” over the “flawed census” in Karachi that was aimed at “containing the number of Karachi population” for the vested interests of “feudal and landlords.”
“It was PTI government that had decided to hold another census in the country within a span of a few years as earlier it was held after 15 or sometimes 20 years despite the constitutional obligation of holding it after every 10 years,” said PTI Karachi president Aftab Siddiqi while talking to the media after attending the demonstration at Hasan Square.
“But this incompetent government ruined everything. It wasted all the public money and gained nothing. Since the digital census has started, we have witnessed serious flaws in every single process. But let me convey this very loud and clear that we would not accept any fraud this time in the name of digital census.”
The party leaders Imran Ismail, Arsalan Taj Ghumman and Khurram Sher Zaman also addressed the protest demonstrations at different points.
Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023
