Planning Minister Asad Umar announced on Tuesday that the federal cabinet has given a 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,” tweeted Umar after attending the cabinet meeting in the capital.
Cabinet gave the approval for holding a census using modern digital technology and consistent with global best practices. Proposal for approval of CCI for holding the census will be moved soon. This will be first time in Pak history census will be held with a gap of only 5 years
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) October 5, 2021
The minister 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,” said Umar.
MQM-Pakistan raises objections on census
Officials who were part of the cabinet meeting told Bol News, on the condition of anonymity, that body approved the deployment of the army for the census. It was also agreed that the next general elections would be held per the new census, they added.
They added that the cabinet has decided that the work on carrying out the new census will be finalised in the next 18 months.
It was also reported that PTI ally, MQM had objected to some of the methods that will be adopted for the census.
“Whoever belongs to a certain area should be counted as part of that area only during the census,” MQM minister Aminul Haq had reportedly during the meeting.
However, the MQM despite raising objections on the methods voted in favour of a new census.
Political parties say new census before next polls vital for Sindh
KARACHI: Nearly four years have passed since the 2017 census but 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 in order 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, which is the biggest city of Sindh province, the population of the mega city was confirmed as 144.91 million.
The political parties and other segments of the society have since been constantly demanding that a new census be carried out again on a fair basis before the 2023 election.