Summary moved to Convening Cci Meeting to approve 2023 census

Three possible results pending the results of the census on the CCI forum.

How will the government make changes, without a two-thirds majority.

SC orders census for fresh elections, says Ahsan Iqbal.

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Planning and Development, in a bid to approve Pakistan's first-ever digital census of population, houses and flats held earlier this year, has moved the brief to convene a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI), The News reported on Thursday.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) conducted the last census and compiled its results – which have now been forwarded to the CCI for review/approval.

"A summary forwarded by the Ministry of Planning has informed the CCI Secretariat/Cabinet Division that the census has been completed along with the post-census survey which is ready for consideration by the competent forum for taking a final decision," The News said, citing an official source.

This decision by the government to prepare and then send the official summary clearly shows that the government is ready to convene a meeting of the CCI before the end of its tenure.

Earlier there was discussion to hold the CCI meeting on August 2, 2023 but it was not possible.

However, now the summary has been forwarded to the CCI for approval of the completed census, which is likely to have far-reaching complications in the political arena, especially after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's recent announcement to hold the next general elections under the newly conducted census.

There are three possible outcomes pending the results of the census on the CCI forum.

Either the CCI will annul the results in light of serious flaws likely to be discovered by the stakeholders during the meeting or approve the results of the census.

In the second case, the consequences will be the postponement of the next election as a result of the delimitation exercise.

However, a third option will be to set up a committee to resolve protracted disputes and find an amicable solution acceptable to all interested parties.

There are also questions about how the government will get approval for constitutional amendments that require a two-thirds majority.

If there is any plan to postpone the general election at any level, then the digital census results can be approved.

In such a case, the Election Commission of Pakistan needs at least four to six months to carry out the delimitation.

The latest census results show that the country's population is around 250 million, but has exceeded 240 million.

PBS has completed the task of conducting a census survey to verify the results of the first ever digital census in selected blocks of 48 districts.

PBS has selected 2,500 blocks in selected districts of the country to recheck the population to lend credibility to the exercise.

Some of the results of the last census conducted were quite interesting but hard to digest even for demographers, especially in Balochistan which has a high density of Baloch population.

In rural parts of Sindh, there are complaints of recounts, while in urban parts of the province – especially Karachi – complaints of recounts are rife.

The deadline set by the census timeframe has been extended. Finally, a post-enumeration survey was conducted, the results of which have not yet been ascertained.

This means that there is still a chance that disputes will persist.

Talking to The News on Wednesday evening, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the summary has been moved to the CCI to decide whether to hold elections based on the new census or ignore it and hold elections based on the latest census.

A paradoxical situation arose where the CCI would have to take the final decision.

He said Parliament has approved a constitutional amendment that approves the delimitation based on the provisional results of the 2017 census.

Now the counting is complete and it could lead to a tricky situation if someone were to approach the Supreme Court. The SC, he recalled, had given instructions to hold a fresh census for the next elections