Agreed in 2018 next polls will be held as per new census: Azam

Dar tells Senate if elections conducted now, they will be on basis of old constituencies

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate on Thursday was informed that it was decided in 2018 that the next general elections would be held on the basis of a fresh census.

During the Question Hour in the upper house of parliament, Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar also told the House that the country’s first digital population census was under way in addition to counting the number of households as well.

He was responding to a question raised by PPP Senator Bahramand Tangi, who asked how the elections would take place if the census was not completed.

He also inquired whether the elections would be held based on the figures of the previous census or the ongoing one.

Presently, the 7th Population and Housing Census is ongoing in the country.

The law minister told the PPP senator that along with the agreement for the next polls to be held in accordance with the new census, around 25 or 26 amendments were passed as well.

Azam continued that if the census as well as the fresh delimitation of constituencies were completed, then the general elections would be held in accordance with the new enumeration.

Expressing his views in the House, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar noted that if the elections were conducted now, they would be held on the basis of the previous delimitation of constituencies.

Referring to Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he wondered if governments were formed in the two provinces now, would the elections conducted in October this year be fair and transparent.

The finance minister further maintained that a similar amount of funds were spent on the census conducted in 2017 and reservations were raised over that as well.

He added that there were calls for introducing amendments to that census too and they were eventually incorporated.

He pointed out that the elections in Punjab and K-P would then be conducted on the basis of the previous census.

The minister added that as amendments were introduced in the 2017 census, there was no problem in making changes in the ongoing one too.

Speaking on other matters, Dar claimed that the current government had not stopped its external payments even for a day.

He added that now that the country’s external debt had reduced, the government was focusing on improving its foreign reserves.

“We are striving to take the central bank’s reserves by the end of this year to $13 billion,” he maintained.

The minister said there should be no politics on the country’s economy.

He added that the government had already said it was prepared to hold talks with the opposition on a "charter of economy".

Dar regretted that the State Bank of Pakistan had been turned into a state within a state, adding that his ministry had nothing to do with the monetary policy.

Returning to the issue of census, MQM-P Senator Faisal Subzwari demanded that the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) should be taken on board the process.

He added that the census did not only mean parliament seats, but involved the distribution of resources as well.

Subzwari noted that the census figures were not classified documents that they were not being disclosed.

He continued that all parties should be heard to make the process of census a transparent one.

He maintained that nobody would accept a “controversial” census.

The MQM-P senator added what was the use of spending billions of rupees on a “controversial” activity.

PTI Senator Faisal Javed raised the question why the economy was performing well 10 months ago.

“Who destroyed an economy that was running so well?” he asked.

In response, Finance Minister Dar challenged the PTI senator to a verbal duel on the economy.

The minister sarcastically remarked that the PTI senator’s suggestion of a comparison between the state of economy during his party’s tenure and the one of the incumbent government was “good” one.

The minister asked the Senate chairman to set a day during the session in the coming week for the verbal duel.

During the sitting, the commerce ministry presented its written trade figures.

Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar disclosed that the country’s exports might decline instead of increasing. He added that there was a massive loss in exports to China.

As per the written trade figures, the country's exports stood at $21.40 billion in the year 2019-2020. In the financial year 2020-21, there were exports of $25.30 billion.

The country’s exports stood at $31.80 billion In the fiscal year 2021-22. In the year 2019-2020, the textile exports were recorded at $12.50 billion.

In the financial year 2020-21, there were textile exports worth $15.40 billion. The textile exports registered more than $19 billion in the financial year 2021-22.

Under the free trade agreement between Pakistan and China, Islamabad exported goods costing more than $2.4 billion dollars to Beijing in 2022-21.