Election not possible in 90 days with new census: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has said that elections were not possible 90 days on the basis of the new census.

The coalition government is facing a challenging situation as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), a crucial partner in the ruling alliance, has made it clear that it opposed holding elections based on the old enumeration data. This has raised concerns about the possibility of timely elections.

However, other parties within the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) especially the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) do not agree with the MQM-P’s stance and have announced that the digital census will not be recognised due to various legal obstacles.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed that the elections will be conducted based on the latest census.

Read more: Monitoring body announces concluding Pakistan’s maiden digital census

MQM Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said on Monday said that the people of Karachi will never accept census results if the mega city’s population was shown less than 30 million.

Addressing a press conference, he claimed that a conspiracy was being hatched to reduce the population of urban Sindh, particularly Karachi and Hyderabad.