KARACHI:Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor on Sunday rejected the results of national population census and strongly demanded of the rulers to count the uncounted 15 million Karachiites, or be prepared for a wrath of the citizens of this megacity.
A large number of PDP workers, civil society activists and citizens gathered in front of the Karachi Press Club and held a ‘whistleblowers demo’ and also observed a token hunger strike against the unfair result of Karachi population. Carrying party flags, placards and banners, they chanted slogans for their demands.
Addressing the demo, PDP Chairman Altaf Shakoor said the Karachiites have totally rejected what he called fake results of the fake population census. He said the federal cabinet has once again rubbed salt into the wounds of Karachiites by approving these fraudulent results. He said the lingering issues of the megacity could not be resolved till the uncounted 15 million Karachiites are counted and federal and provincial funds are distributed as per the corrected and actual census figures.
He said that Karachi is facing lack of all basic facilities including water, public transport, paved streets, drainage, education, healthcare, housing and jobs because the rulers are not ready to accept the actual population of the megacity and allocate it its due resources accordingly without discrimination. He said different mafias including encroachments, water tanker and transport mafias exploit this situation and the innocent citizens of the megacity are at the receiving end.
Altaf Shakoor reminded Prime Minister Imran Khan that this is the same Karachi which has bestowed 14 national assembly and 28 provincial assembly seats to his party, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI), but sadly Imran Khan and his party proved ungrateful, took a u-turn and betrayed the voters of Karachi. He said extending illegal quota system is another dagger in the back of Karachi at the hands of the PTI regime led by Khan. He said the PTI government and its lawmakers are paying lip-service to Karachi, but with their action they have proved that they are not sincere with Karachi and its citizens. He said the PTI lawmakers elected from Karachi have practically proved that they have not an iota of honesty and integrity and they have defrauded their voters who were befooled with catchy slogans.
He said this regime has not fulfilled even a single of its electoral promises. He said this regime has failed to bring back the daughter of the nation, Dr Aafia Siddiqui, which was also amongst the electoral promises of Imran Khan and his party PTI. He announced that his party would also start a huge campaign for an early release and repatriation of Dr Siddiqui.
Altaf Shakoor said that federal coalition partners, PTI and MQM, are two faces of the same base coin. They are hoodwinking and defrauding the people of Karachi. Their hidden enmity to Karachi and its development in now totally unveiled. They have befooled the Karachiites in the name of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) revival, removal of encroachments, and now their new attack to Karachi is extending the illegal quota system and approving highly controversial and dubious results of the nation population census in Karachi. He said the provincial government of the PPP is not sincere with the megacity, as well. He demanded ending the cruel quota system, holding national population census in Karachi afresh, reviving the KCR and Karachi Transport Corporation (KTC) and giving the megacity ample funds for catering its needs in the sectors of water, drainage, street pavement, education and healthcare.
Those spoke included PDP leaders Sardar Zulfiqar, Hamid Siddiqui, Khalid Siddiqui Advocate, Zahid Jamil, Akram Agria, Ghulam Sarwar Ghazi, Kaleemullah Malik, Mian Riaz, Liquat Ali, Abdul Rasheed, Ramzan Kakar, Zaman Khan Inqilabi and others.
Senior leaders of PDP Imdad Hussain, Fazal Rabi Khan from Lyari, Javed Iqbal, Arif Jalib, Amjad baloch, Aijaz Baloch, Allah Dost, Umair Siddiqui from Korangi, Faseeh, Sikandar Arbab, Sujawal Marwat from disrict West, Umar Badishah, Umar Abbasi, Shahid Abbasi, Shahid Iqbal, Tanveer Hussain Habibullah, Asad Ali, Shahbaz Mughal, Tahir Shah, Rizwanul Haq, Asif Bux, Aslam Malik, Asif from Liaquatabad, and Saeedullah Saeed from Suhrab Goth also spoke.
Later, the participants of the demo blew their whistles to express their aguish against the fake population census figures of the megacity Karachi.