Non-natives living in Sindh should be counted in provincial census: Khuhro.

LARKANA -- Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that all CNIC-holding citizens of other provinces who reside in Sindh should be counted in the province in census and illegal immigrants should be allotted a separate box in the census data.

Khuhro said at a gathering of party workers at his residence here on Thursday that only those who possessed CNIC should have right to franchise. Even a newborn should be counted in the census and options of permanent and temporary addresses must be mentioned in the CNIC for using the right to vote, he said.

He pointed out anomalies in previous census when permanent address in CNIC was linked to using the right of vote which had ultimately led to squeezing the share of Sindh in the National Finance Commission award. Therefore, he said, all people living in Sindh should be counted as residents in the census to pave the way for expanding the province's share in the NFC award.

He advised the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to participate in local bodies' election. Power would surely trickle down to grassroots level with the completion of two phases of election, he said.

He said the party's reservations over delimitations were to be addressed by the Election Commission of Pakistan and PPP government to do with it.

He said the delimitations were carried out in November 2021 while MQM-P filed its objections in March 2022 hence courts rejected the party's pleas twice.

As the process of delimitation was on, union councils' population increased from 15,000 to 25,000 and from 30,000 to 70,000 in rural and urban areas, respectively, he said.

He said that when the ECP invited objections the MQM-P did not turn up to file petition and...