LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh President Nisar Ahmad Khuhro Thursday advised MQM-P to participate in the local elections.
In the seventh census, all the people living in Sindh with computerized identity cards of Pakistan had the right to vote and they should be counted while illegal foreigners should be kept in a separate cell, says Khuhro while speaking at his residence on Thursday on the occasion of PTI Larkana City Information Secretary Abdul Razak Dero’s joining in the PPP.
He said that MQM Pakistan should take part in the local elections because after the completion of the second phase of the local elections, the power would be transferred to the lower level. He said that it was not the work of the Sindh government, but the Election Commission to make delimitations, so what was the fault of the PPP Sindh government regarding constituencies?
He said that the atrocities started in November 2021 and the objections against them by MQM Pakistan were filed late in March 2022 and the court had also rejected the requests of MQM in this regard twice.
He said that at the time when delimitation was happening, the population of rural areas’ Union Councils had increased from 15,000 to 25,000 and the population of urban areas had increased from 30,000 to 70,000.
It was said that they should have objected when the Election Commission had set the date for objections, but MQM filed objections some time after the expiry of the objection dates, which were rejected by the Election Commission and the court.
He said that new elections could cannot be held immediately because the first phase elections of four divisions had been held on the same elections, so how would it be possible for the Election Commission to hold the first phase elections on these elections?
Then the second phase of elections should be conducted on the basis of new alliances, so their applications may have been rejected. Khuhro said that the municipal elections are being held on party basis and every political party is popular among the people, whether it is small or big, what difference does it make?, he asked.
Nisar said that all those who had a valid computerized identity card of Pakistan and live in Sindh should be counted in Sindh, and the right to vote on the identity card is permanent or the option to use a temporary address should be available.
He said that in the last census, the right to vote was counted on the permanent address, the population of Sindh was counted less, due to which the share of Sindh in the NFC was less, so all those who living in Sindh should be counted so that the NFC share could be increased.
He said that the people of other provinces who had the identity card of Pakistan could come to any province of Pakistan and could also take up residence and they are Pakistanis. They have an identity card and they live in Sindh, so they should be counted in Sindh in the census. He said that those who do not have an identity card of Pakistan, whether they are Burmese or anyone else, are illegal foreigners, so they should be counted in a separate cell in the population census.
Khuhro further said that Sindh has not given any authority to the federation regarding the creation of new provinces and the creation of new provinces is not in the manifesto of the People’s Party and we have a clear position that a new province will never be created in Sindh. Besides, new provinces cannot be formed.