Next elections to be based on 2017 census: Rana Sanaullah

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday asserted that the next general elections, scheduled to be held in 2023, will be based on the last census carried out in 2017, ARY News reported.

Speaking to a private news channel, the interior minister said that the government has decided not to notify the latest census and the upcoming elections would be held on the basis of 2017 census.

Rana Sanaullah noted that Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) – an ally of the government in the Centre – was unsatisfied with the new digital census as well. “They don’t even accept this new census,” he added.

The minister stressed that there should be consensus on census results and “any decision in haste could lead to a controversial situation” in the country.

“Developing a consensus on the census so that all parties were confident about it would take time,” he added.

A day earlier, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the general elections 2023 would possibly be held on the old census data.

In a statement, Ahsan Iqbal reiterated that elections will be held at its prescribed time and the prime minister already gave the statement about the election commission’s responsibility to finalise the schedule of the polls.

He added that the general elections would possibly be held on old census data. Iqbal was of the view that delimitations are still pending after the new population census. “If elections are held in October, then it will be conducted on old census data.”

The planning minister said that the authorities found anomalies in the population count of some areas in the recent census. On the request of the province, the federal government extended the census deadline, he added.

Ahsan Iqbal said that it would not be possible to issue census results in accordance with the new election schedule.