ECP asks fed govt to complete new census by Dec 2022: sources

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked the federal government to complete the new census by December 2022, sources told Bol News on Monday.

Officials shared that the ECP, in a letter, informed the government that the census needs to be completed by December 2022 as new delimitations are required after the count.

The ECP said that delimitations are a constitutional requirement and that the government has been stating that the new census will be completed by March 2023.

“If the census is completed in March then there will be less time for delimitations,” said the ECP in the letter. It added that they will require at least six months for the delimitations, and urged the government to complete the census by December 2022.

Cabinet gives go-ahead for fresh census in country

Last week, Planning Minister Asad Umar had announced that the federal cabinet has given the green light for carrying out a fresh census in the country using “modern technology”.

“Cabinet gave the approval for holding the census using modern digital technology and consistent with global best practices,” Umar had tweeted after attending the cabinet meeting in the capital.

The minister had shared that the federal government would move a proposal to hold the new census in the Council of Common Interest “soon”.

“This will be the first time in Pakistan’s history [that] census will be held with a gap of only 5 years,” Umar had said.

Political parties say new census before next polls vital for Sindh

Nearly four years have passed since the 2017 census. However, the controversies surrounding it still haunt the Sindh province, while major political parties maintain that the census was way off the mark and was deliberately botched up by the authorities concerned to deprive the people of the province of their due rights.

When the census result was announced, the Sindh-based political parties were up in arms and created a lot of hue and cry, claiming that the 47.9 million population of the province was under-reported by at least 10 million.

On the other hand, Karachi – the biggest city of Sindh province – was confirmed as 144.91 million.

The political parties and other segments of society have since been constantly demanding that a new census be carried out again on a fair basis before the 2023 election.