Former Senate chairman and senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Senator Raza Rabbani said on Sunday that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) must step up and offer explanations on rumours surrounding a possible delay in elections.
The Council of Common Interest (CCI) on Saturday unanimously approved the results of the 7th population and housing census, concluding that the population of Pakistan has reached 241.49 million with a growth rate of 2.55% as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The CCI’s 50th meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by chief ministers of all provinces, three federal ministers and key leaders of the allied parties invited on special invitation.
Speaking on the Senate on Sunday, Rabbani said “There is a fear of delay in the election after the approval of the census,” before stressing that “according to the Constitution, elections must be held within 60 to 90 days after the government completes its terms.” “The ECP must break its silence on the matter,” he said urging the watchdog to complete the process of delimiting constituencies at the earliest. “The federation will be destroyed if polls are delayed,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Leader of the House and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar took the floor and defended the digital census saying, “The Balochistan chief minister was present in the meeting”. “The census was approved by consensus of all provinces,” he underscored. “All digital census records are there for everyone to see,” he added. Dar also said that “the decision to conduct an online consensus before the elections was approved by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government” and informed the upper house that Rs34 billion had been spent on the endeavour.
