The Daily DAWN, Friday July 17, 1998
MQM to have access to census record
By Nasir Malick
LONDON, July 16: The government has agreed to remove the
reservations of the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) regarding the figures of the national population
census, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain
said on Thursday.
Talking to reporters in mid of his meeting with Provincial
Coordi-nation Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali
at MQM International Headquar-ters in London, Mr Hussain said he
had expressed his party's
reservations over the figures of the national census and the
government had agreed to allow a
three-member MQM committee access to official record, wherever
necessary, to remove its
misgivings about the figures.
He said his party was of the opinion that the census figures had
been manipulated. "I have told him
that nobody is going to accept these figures," the MQM Chief
said, pointing towards the minister, who
sat next to Mr Hussain during the talks with the reporters.
Chaudhry Nisar interrupted and said the
government was willing to remove MQM reservations in whichever
way it wanted to.
He said the government had asked the MQM to form a committee
which would be given access to
official record which they wanted to see or meet any government
official for seeking any clarifications.
Mr Hussain welcomed the offer and said he would nominate a
three-member committee soon for the
purpose. However, he insisted that there had been great
manipulation in the figures.
He said that while Karachi,the largest industrial city of
Pakistan, had only 3.45 per cent growth rate,
Larkana had been shown to have a growth rate of 4.69 per cent.
"Can anyone believe that Larkana
has such a (high) growth rate?" he asked.
Mr Hussain said Rawalpindi had been shown as having a growth rate
of 3.41 per cent and
Bahawalpur 4.85 per cent.
The MQM chief was of the opinion that Karachi has a minimum
annual growth rate of 6.0 per cent.
"Who will believe the census figure that Karachi has a
population of only 9.2 million?" He said that
according to independent figures, the present population of
Karachi is around 13 to 14 million.
However, Chaudhry Nisar Ali explained to him that since Larkana,
Bahawalpur were small towns,
even a small increase in the population is reflected high in
percentage. He said that 3.5 per cent
growth rate for a big city like Karachi was one of the highest in
the world.