ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) may review the decision to endorse the 2023 census results after one of the coalition partners and a provincial government opposed it vehemently, it has been learned.
According to the sources, a meeting may be called in the evening today to review the earlier decision made on Saturday after Pakistan People’s Party and Balochistan government expressed their severe reservations over the same. The sources said that PM Shehbaz called on former president Asif Ali Zardari on the day the CCI endorsed the census results and the latter conveyed his severe reservations over approval of the digital census-2023. “Zardari almost rejected the approval,” said the sources.
The Balochistan government also had reservations over the census data. Though the CM Balochistan attended the CCI meeting but the province also has reservations over the census figures.
The party has expressed its reservations over the possible delay in the general elections, especially after approval of the digital census.
The upcoming general elections in the country are likely to be delayed by three to four months minimum following the endorsement of the 2023 census. On Saturday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided over a CCI meeting in which the single-point agenda was to deliberate over the population census.
The meeting was attended by chief ministers of all four provinces, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Aviation Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, Adviser to the PM on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Qamar Zaman Kaira and other officials. The meeting was told that Pakistan’s population has surged to 241.49 million.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, later speaking to media said that the general elections will be held on new census results following the CCI approval.
According to constitutional and political experts, the general elections are likely to be delayed by a couple of months as the Election Commission of Pakistan would need time to conduct the delimitation exercise afresh.
