report in Pakistan Today, Dec 30, 2020
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, raising objection to the federal cabinet’s decision of approving the National Census 2017.
The decision of approving the census was made by the federal cabinet on December 22.
The chief minister stated in the letter: “In pursuance of Part II of the Federal Legislative List and Schedule IV of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, the results of the National Census 2017 have been pending approval of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) since the time of survey. In this regard, the summary moved by the Ministry of Statistics on November 09, 2017 was deliberated upon at the CCI, which through its decision on November 13, 2017 had directed that third party validation of one per cent census blocks in each province should take place before compilation of the final results.”
“Later on November 24, 2017, the CCI had decided to further enhance the sampling proportion from one per cent to five per cent in each province. The decision of third party validation was made in the light of the agreement reached by the parliamentary parties, which led to the passage of the 24th constitutional amendment, allowing for the 2018 general elections to be held on the basis of provisional census results,” the CM wrote.
The CM further wrote that the matter of finalising the census results remained pending since March, 2018. But on November 11, the members of the CCI were informed that the federal cabinet has set up a committee, headed by Minister Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, to make recommendations for finalisation of the census results.
“This unilateral decision of the federal cabinet was clearly in negation of the parliamentary parties’ agreement as well as the earlier decisions made by the CCI,” the CM pointed out.
“Instead of addressing the concerns of the provinces and in particular of the province of Sindh, the committee submitted its recommendations to the federal cabinet without engaging with the Sindh government, which is direct negation of the earlier decision of the CCI.”
He further wrote: “It is most unfortunate that the federal cabinet, which is headed by you {Prime Minister Imran Khan} just like the CCI, approved the recommendations of the committee on December 22. It is regrettably stated that the federal cabinet failed to adhere to the decision of the CCI, which speaks volumes of the sanctity that the federal government shows to decisions of important constitutional bodies like the CCI.”.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/12/30/sindh-raises-objection-to-cabinets-decision-on-census/
