ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Planning and Development sent a brief to convene a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to seek approval for Pakistan’s first digital population and housing census to be conducted earlier this year. Yes, JEE News reported Thursday.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has conducted the latest population census and compiled the results – which have now been forwarded to the CCI for guidance/approval.
“The summary sent by the Ministry of Planning has informed the CCI Secretariat/Cabinet Division that the census exercise has been completed with the post-census survey for consideration by the competent forum for taking the final decision. Ready,” JEE News reported, citing the top. Official sources
The government’s decision to prepare and then send the official summary clearly shows that the government is all set to convene the CCI before its term ends.
Earlier, the CCI meeting was discussed on August 2, 2023, but it could not happen.
However, the summary has now been sent to the CCI for approval of the full census exercise, which is likely to create far-reaching complications in the political arena, especially for Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to hold the next general elections. After the recent statement regarding New Census
There are three possible outcomes pending the census results on the CCI forum.
Either the CCI will annul the results in the light of serious flaws pointed out by the stakeholders during the meeting, or it will approve the results of the census.
In the latter case, the delimitation exercise will result in delaying the next elections.
However, a third possibility would be to form a committee to resolve protracted disputes and find a solution acceptable to all stakeholders.
Questions also arise as to how the government will get approval for constitutional amendments that require a two-thirds majority.
If there is any plan to delay the general elections at any level, the results of the digital census can be approved.
In this case, the Election Commission of Pakistan needs at least four to six months to start the delimitation exercise.
The latest census results show that the country’s population is less than 250 million but has crossed 240 million.
PBS has completed the post-census survey to verify the results of the first digital population census in selected blocks of 48 districts.
PBS selected 2,500 blocks in selected districts of the country to re-evaluate the census population to make the exercise credible.
Some of the latest census results were quite interesting but hard to digest even for demographers, especially in Balochistan where the density of Baloch citizens is very high.
Complaints of over-counting are common in rural areas of Sindh, while complaints of under-counting were high in urban parts of the province – particularly in Karachi.
As per the census time frame, the fixed date was extended. Finally, a post census survey was conducted but the results are not yet known.
This means that the conflict is still likely to persist.
Talking to JEE News on Wednesday night, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the summary has been sent to the CCI to decide whether to hold elections based on the new census or ignore them. Last Census
A paradoxical situation has arisen where the CCI has to take the final decision.
He said Parliament had approved a constitutional amendment in 2017 to approve delimitation based on provisional census results.
Now the census has been completed and if someone approaches the Supreme Court, a difficult situation may arise. He reminded that the Supreme Court had given instructions to conduct a new census for the next elections.
