In a major but expected development, the Sindh cabinet has rejected the federal cabinet’s decision to approve the census results, saying it does not have the powers to do so, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday.
About the future course of action, the provincial cabinet noted that the matter pertained to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) which would be moved for the purpose.
The move came a day after the PPP said the federal government had bypassed the agreement signed by the parliamentary leaders in the Senate for correcting the highly-controversial Census 2017 results through a recount of the population in 5 percent randomly-selected population blocks.
“Agreement of the parliamentary leaders, which also bears the signatures of Senator Azam Swati on behalf of PTI, had made possible the passage of the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows the use of the provisional Census 2017 figures for delimitation of constituencies only for the general elections of 2017 and the by-elections thereof,” said PPP leader Taj Haider in a statement.
Earlier on Tuesday, the federal cabinet approved the 6th National Census-2017 after a lapse of three years with MQM – a ruling coalition member – submitting a dissenting note.
But there was strange addition of recommending that the census should be held after every three years in a country where the last exercise took place after 19 years instead of 10 due to the objections and reservations expressed by some provinces and political circles.