Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah on Saturday asked the Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker to summon a joint sitting of the the parliament on the sixth census results after the Council of Common Interest (CCI) ignored their concerns and published the data.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah made a request to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani under Article 154(7) of the Constitution to summon a joint session of parliament.
Murad said that the Article 154 (7) states that “if the federal government or a provincial government is dissatisfied with a decision of the council, it may refer the matter to Parliament in a joint sitting whose decision in this behalf shall be final”.
The Sindh chief minister said that in the federal legislative list, census appears as entry number 9.
He also said that the CCI was “empowered” to have a final say on the matter as a “genuine and accurate census is a pre requisite to so many constitutional and legal rights” and as it has provincial representation.“
It is the considered view of the Government of Sindh that the opinion of the provinces ought to be properly considered before approving the Census results,” said Murad.
He also highlighted the decision made by the CCI on the census since November 2017.
Murad said that it was last year in November 2020 the CCI was informed that a cabinet committee was formed to looked into the census.
He also added that he had raised the concerns of his province in the meeting and was assured that the committee would address the concerns of the provinces.
“It is most unfortunate to state here that the committee instead of addressing the concerns of the provinces or even meeting the respective provincial governments unilaterally proceeded with the finalisation of its report.”
said CM Shah. He also deplored that it was “more unfortunate” that the cabinet, which is headed by PM Imran Khan, endorsed the committee’s decision.
