As a PPP delegation reached the Bahadurabad office of MQM-P in an attempt to draw the two parties closer on Wednesday, Taj Haider said both sides had the same stance on many issues, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting in Karachi, the PPP leader said census and admissions in medical colleges were the two issues on which the two sides focused, adding that the matter of how Karachi’s mandate was given to a “third party” was mentioned during the talks.

He said they had conveyed a message of the party leadership, which would be deliberated upon by the MQM Rabita Committee. The delegation talked openly on different matters, Taj said, expressing the hope that contacts would continue in the future too. 

Faisal Sabzwari of MQM-P said all parties had unanimous views on the census issue. “It is necessary for the Centre to count the people rightly; if not, it would be a great injustice to the people,” he noted.

He said Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities as well as all the parties had rejected the results of the 2017 census and they could pinpoint how the entire process was manipulated.

An agreement was reached with the federal government and signed by the leaders of all parties, Sabzwari and Taj said about the promise of conducting an audit. The MQM leader added that a committee formed by Prime Minister Imran Khan did nothing on the issue.

Earlier in the day, a PPP delegation comprising Taj, Saeed Ghani and Waqar Mehdi reached the MQM-P’s central office where Sabzwari, Khawaja Izhar-ul-Haq, Javed Hanif and Muhammad Hussain represented their party.

The controversy over the 2017 census got further complicated after the federal government approved its results, generating a strong reaction from both the PPP and the MQM-P.

As the Sindh government raised its voice over the decision, the MQM, despite being part of the ruling coalition at Centre, also decided to protest and rely on the people for their feedback before finalising the future course of action.

But this political move by the PPP to reach out to the MQM-P amid the opposition’s ongoing anti-government movement is quite meaningful.