ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interest (CCI) on Monday approved the results of the 2017 National Population And Housing Census with a majority vote and decided to hold the new census by end of 2021.
The meeting of the CCI was held here presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan and was attended by the chief ministers of all the provinces.
Later, giving details of the meeting in a press conference here, Federal Minster for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said the CMs of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan voted in favour while the Sindh CM voted against the approval.
However, keeping in view the reservations showed by some stakeholders, including the Sindh government, over the results of the census, the CCI had decided to start the process of the 7th national population census by October this year, Umar informed.
He said the framework for a new census would be prepared within six to eight weeks and then approval would be sought from the CCI.
“About four months after the approval, the process of the new census would start by the end of September or start of October this year.”
The minister informed that the census was a process that spans over a period of 18 months so it would be completed by the start of 2023.
“The general elections are expected to be held in October 2023 so the next general elections would be held on the basis of new census’ results,” he added.
Asad Umar said the cost of the new census was estimated at around Rs 23 billion that would be divided into two fiscal years: FY2022 and FY2023.
Referring to the reservations by the Sindh government over the result of 2017 Census, the minister pointed out that the ruling party was neither in Sindh nor in federal governments at that time, but the CCI approves 2017 census results, decides to hold fresh census immediately (PTI) government respects the reservations of the Sindh government that is its constitutional right.
“Although the technical experts of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) are ready to respond to the queries raised over the census claiming that they can prove that there is nothing wrong with the results but despite that the CCI has decided to conduct fresh consensus which is a big and costly process,” Asad Umar added.
He also asked all the stakeholders to refrain from political point-scoring on the next census as it was a national process under which all provinces would national resources and representations in the assemblies.
Responding to a question, Asad Umar said that the next national census would be conducted under a project mode as services of different experts would be hired to ensure the process is transparent and flawless.
