The Council of Common Interest (CCI) is slated to convene a meeting on August 5 to approve the digital census 2023 conducted earlier this year. Sources informed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had authorized the Ministry of Planning and Development’s proposal to hold the CCI meeting to approve the first-ever digital Population and Housing Census. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has successfully conducted this census, with the results ready for constitutional approval by the CCI. The approval could result in a delay of three to four months for the forthcoming elections.
Census Impact on Elections and Potential Outcomes
There are three potential outcomes for the CCI meeting; the CCI could scrap the results due to identified flaws by stakeholders or approve the census, resulting in delayed elections due to the required delimitation exercise by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The third outcome could be forming a committee to resolve disputes and find a mutually acceptable solution. The report also questions how the government will secure approval for constitutional amendments requiring a two-thirds majority.
The census results indicate that Pakistan’s population is less than 250 million but exceeds 240 million. The PBS has completed a post-enumeration survey to verify the digital population census in selected blocks of 48 districts. Some of the census results have raised eyebrows, with notable discrepancies in Sindh’s rural and urban parts and an unusually high density of Baloch nationals in Balochistan. The release of these findings may potentially reignite controversies.
