Khursheed Shah says no harm in holding next polls on old census

ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah on Tuesday sought to vindicate his suggestion for holding upcoming general elections on the basis of an old census, saying there is no harm in holding the polls in the light of old census figures.

Speaking to the media here, Khursheed Shah expressed his dismay over the adjournment of National Assembly session for an indefinite period without taking him into confidence and said it had never happened in the past. Shah dubbed the act as a mockery of the parliament.

He said the constitutional amendment bill was not presented to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for discussion and demanded that fresh delimitation of constituencies should be carried out in the light of its decision.

He also opposed the demand of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for holding early elections, saying his party did not want the snap elections.

Expressing concern over the provisional results of the recently held population census, he said the population of Sindh was under-counted by three to four percent.

It merits mention here that National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is chairing a meeting of leaders of parliamentary parties in Islamabad today to evolve a consensus on the question of delimitation of constituencies ahead general elections in 2018.

The meeting is aimed to win the support of the opposition parties who had decided to oppose the constitutional amendment for fresh delimitation, pressing the government to allay their concerns with regard to census figures.