CCI session on March 24 to take decision on Census, AAG tells SHC

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday heard petitions with regard to issuance of census figures and local government elections in the province, ARY Neews reported.

Assistant Attorney General (AAG) in a statement on behalf of the federal government said that the government has taken steps with regard to the population census and a session of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) will be held on March 24.

The meeting will decide the issue of contentious census figures on March 24. The Supreme Court has already given its verdict over the population census, the AAG added.

“Our issue is delay in local government election,” Pasban’s counsel argued in the court. ” The elections can be held on previous population census, if the figures of current census are contentious,” Counsel Irfan Aziz said. “Population census is not a requirement of local councils elections,” he further argued.

“We will conduct the local government elections when the census data will be provided to us,” the representative of the election commission said.

The court ordered the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to take immediate steps with regard to the data of the population census.

The bench also summoned reply from the statistics department over releasing the figures of the population census.

The bench adjourned further hearing of the case until March 31.

The court in an earlier hearing of the matter had issued orders for an early decision over the Census-2017 results.