ISLAMABAD, March 6: Pakistan People’s Party has expressed concern over the power sharing formula on the basis of 1998 census. “It is a matter of concern that the 1998 census is being made the base to redistribute the economic and political power between the Federation and the provinces.”

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, Mian Raza Rabbani, the PPP acting secretary-general, said the regime should not touch such contentious issues and leave it for the elected government, as it would make the elections more controversial.

He said the party on July 12, 1998 had stated that the results of the census were manipulated and factually incorrect.

The party objected to the manner in which the census was conducted and the centralization of the tabulation and consolidation of its results were done to manipulate the figures, he said.

“The statistics released at the time showed that they were incorrect and manipulated.”

He said the Economic Survey 1997-98 gave the population figures of the country as 139 million, while the census shows a population of 130.5 million.

“Similarly according to the Sindh Bureau of Statistics the population of Sindh at that time was about 35 million, but the census shows it as 30 million”.