News
Strike against 'pre-census rigging' in Sindh today
KARACHI: The nationalist parties in Sindh will observe strike today to protest against the alleged irregularities in the house-count process.They have demanded of the government to declare the house count null and void and revisit all the exercise in a transparent manner, or else they would boycott the upcoming census.
Their strike call has been supported by various other political parties. Sunni Tehreek chief Sarwat Ejaz Qadri announced at a press conference after a meeting with the convener of the Census Monitoring Committee Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah that his party supported the strike called by the nationalist parties.
"If the government fails to fulfill our demand for a transparent census in Sindh, all the democratic forces will join hands to launch a movement in the country."
Rejecting the process of house count, he alleged massive pre-census rigging.
A delegation comprising nationalist leaders - Ali Hasan Chandio, S Lal Aho Ja and Inayat Khatian - also met the ST chief. They were of the opinion that the census process in Sindh had been hijacked by certain political forces and that the census should be conducted under the supervision of the Army.
Jalal Shah regretted that a letter about the irregularities in the house-count process was posted to the census commissioner but to no avail and instead the period for the census was extended.
He said that census should be conducted under the Army's supervision and, if needed, a curfew should be imposed. According to him, Saturday's strike is the beginning of a series of protests until the government revisits the house-count exercise.
He held the PPP responsible for allowing an ethnic group to manipulate the census process.
Although the Jamaat-e-Islami did not announce its support for the strike, it said the party would not oppose it. However, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl also endorsed the strike call, appealing to the people to shut their businesses and keep vehicles off the roads.
Fasahat Moiuddin adds: The chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) also supported the strike call. He said that the census should be carried out under the supervision of the Army and all the exercise done so far in this regard should be declared null and void.
He was talking to journalists after a meeting with the chief of the Sindh United Party Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah at the Kingri House on Friday.
Pagara said massive irregularities had been committed in the census process and, therefore, all the exercise should be revisited under the supervision of the Army.
Courtesy www.geo.tv