ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) will take the matter of conducting a fresh population census across Pakistan into consideration in its upcoming meeting, a much awaited initiative as the country has not conducted a population survey since the last census was carried out in 1998.
A summary was sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking his approval to place the matter before the upcoming meeting of the CCI to carry out the process with the consent of all provinces as early as possible which the premier gave.
On December 4, the ECP had asked the federal government to conduct fresh census in the country as it is necessary, according to the constitution, to hold census after every 10 years and without it questions could be raised over the transparency of general elections.
In the summary sent to the premier by the ECP, it had been suggested to hold fresh census ahead of next general elections in the country, adding that the government should place this issue before the CCI.
The ECP had said that the country did not witness the census for a long time as the last census was held in 1998. It had suggested that census be held before 2018 general elections in Pakistan in order to help ascertain actual count of the population and formation of electoral constituencies.
After the approval of the summary by the prime minister, the matter has now to be passed by the CCI before the population census exercise may finally begin.
A CCI meeting is expected to be called as early as January in which the summary is likely to be tabled.
