Asad Umar says govt ready to hold another census after reservations

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar Wednesday said that annulling the 2017 census was no option for them as it would have restored the delimitation based on the 1998 census and would lead to a major loss for the Sindh province, ARY NEWS reported.

Asad Umar expressed these views during the joint session of the Parliament after presenting a motion in the House to look into the reservations of the Sindh province over the Census 2017 process.

He said that the census was conducted during the previous regime and rather than deciding on it they left the matter over to the next government. “We have two options either to dismiss the entire process or approve it and move forward for a more transparent process later,” he said.

He said that the annulment of the 2017 census would have led to a greater loss for the Sindh province, resulting in the restoration of constituencies based on the 1998 process that would have remarkably brought down the number of their seats.

“There are severe reservations on census and the government could hold another process to rectify the errors,” he announced.

Asad Umar said that the constitution calls for holding the population count once in 10 years, however, the PTI government could hold it after five years to address the grievances.