KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday sought the report about the final results of national census 2017 and ordered federal government to submit the report till May 10, by issuance of notification.
A division bench of SHC headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar issued the orders in the petition of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) about the result of national census 2017 and delimitation of constituencies in the light of these results.
Representative of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) told the court that Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the results of the census conducted in 2017and informed that issuance of notification would take fifteen days.
Court observed that CCI couldn’t take decision on this issue as census was held in 2017 and it couldn’t announce the final results of this census in 2021.
“When will the final results of national census 2017 be announced,” bench questioned and returned the provincial report of PBS on census.
Court ordered PBS to furnish final report of census results when announced and also directed to notify the final results of census till May 10th.
Court remarked that it would look into the matter of delimitation of constituencies for local government elections once the final results were announced.
The MQM-P challenged the constitution of committees for delimitation of LG jurisdictions in the province stating that according to the Elections Act, 2017, the exercise of delimitation could not be carried out unless the final results of the population census were officially published.
The MQM-P’s senior deputy convener Amir Khan, former mayor of Karachi Wasim Akhtar and others had objected in their petition that the provincial election commissioner had formed election committees for the delimitation of LB constituencies and carried out delimitation in violation of the election commission’s laws.
They stated that the election commission was required to carry out delimitation after the results of the census were officially published, which had not been done. They added that the delimitation amounted to violation of the election and delimitation laws and directions of the superior courts.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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