ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Council of Common Interest (CCI) has decided to hold a new Population Census in the Country in 2021 to address concerns of smaller provinces, especially Sindh.
Briefing media in Islamabad on Monday after the CCI meeting held in Islamabad with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Chair, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar told that the new Population Census will be held in 2021 instead of waiting for 10 years, and its framework will be ready in the next six to seven months to ensure transparency and to take all stakeholders into confidence over the matter.
The federal minister said that the Census process will be completed by March 2023 and the next general elections will be held on the basis of a new population survey in Pakistan. He added that it had become imperative to either reject or accept census results to hold local bodies elections.
Asad Umar said that further told that in its meeting, the ICC approved the long-pending results of Census 2017 with a majority vote.
The minister told that all the seven members of the federal government, the Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, the Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan voted in favor of releasing the Census 2017 data while the Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah opposed the move.
Asad Umar said that in case of rejection of statistics of Census 2017, the government has to rely on the population data of 1998 which will ultimately affect the interests of the smaller provinces as the population is a fundamental criterion in the distribution of resources among the federating units.
