Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said Saturday that it will take more than five months to hold elections on the basis of the 2023 digital census.

According to Tarar, who spoke with Geo News, the Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting, which was presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, decided to hold the next general election in the country in accordance with the results of the 2023 census.

According to Article 51 of the Constitution, the Commission will use the geographic limits of the constituencies it has published to hold the general elections for the national and provincial assemblies, he said.

The law minister stated that the delimitation procedure must be finished by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a maximum of 120 days.

The ECP, however, has the authority to decide when to begin the procedure, the minister added.

His statement follows the CCI meeting which approved the first-ever digital Population and Housing Census 2023.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier called the CCI meeting to discuss the fate of the census in 2023 amid rumors of dissension among coalition allies.

The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in which the chief ministers of all four provinces, along with federal ministers attended.