Census issues: CM briefs lawmakers on govt’s stance

Shah had been asked to brief House after opposition leader asked him to clarify the government’s position on the issue

KARACHI:

Chief Minister (CM) Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday refuted media reports stating that the upcoming census had been postponed indefinitely. “A final decision will be made at the March 25 meeting to be held in Islamabad,” he said, giving a policy statement in the Sindh Assembly after attending the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting in Islamabad on Monday.

The CM had been asked to brief the House after the opposition leader asked him to clarify the government’s position on the issue.

Shah said, “I presented Sindh’s concerns during the meeting. I told the prime minister that Sindh is not in favour of delaying the census and wants to conduct the exercise under the supervision of the army.”



The CM explained that he suggested at the CCI meeting to hold the census in phases, similar to the local government elections. “I asked them to start this exercise from Sindh,” he said, adding that prime minister rejected the proposal and said the enumeration exercise would take place simultaneously. He further said that in the next meeting, he would try to convince the chief ministers of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to start evolving consensus on the census rather than adopting delaying tactics over it.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.