Cabinet’s approval needed to publish provisional census results

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to avoid litigations on delimitation of constituencies of National and Provincial Assembly seats, the Ministry of Statistics has prepared an official summary for seeking approval of Federal Cabinet for publishing of provisional census results, The News has learnt.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in consultation with other stakeholders belonging to federal and provincial governments has placed roadmap and exact timeframe for undertaking delimitation exercise in accordance with provisional results of latest census done in 2017.

“We are all set to dispatch an official summary for seeking permission of Federal Cabinet for publishing of provisional census results 2017, going to be used for the purpose of delimitation of constituencies for next general elections,” a top official confirmed to The News here on Thursday.

The permission of provisional census results from the Federal Cabinet is quite important because there will be slight difference in provisional and final results of census with a variation margin ranging around 3 to 5 percent. Without getting permission of the cabinet for the delimitation purposes, it could cause unnecessary litigation before and after the upcoming general elections.

In the aftermath of President Mamnoon Hussain’s assent to the 24th Constitutional Amendment, the government requires permission of the Federal Cabinet for publication of provisional census results.

A summary has been prepared in consultation with Ministry of Law and efforts will be made to get its approval from all ministers. Finally, the PM will take decision on it in a bid to save time, an official of PBS said. The ECP, the official said, had given timeframe of mid- January 2018 for sharing details of census results on block basis including four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Fata. The block wise census results for AJK and GB are not required at the moment because results of these areas are not required for delimitation purposes.

On other hand, the PBS has been working without permanent Chief Statistician as the last Chief Asif Bajwa had completed his tenure in July 2017. Bajwa was hired as Consultant to PBS for six months and his contract would expire next week on January 4, 2018.

Sajjad Akhtar, member into PBS, has been given acting charge as chances are quite bleak that the government is going to find out any suitable candidate for filling this important slot on permanent basis.