Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on Monday made it clear that if the results of new census have not been officially notified, the next general elections will be held on the basis of the 2017 census, which is considered controversial by coalition partner, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P).
“If the new census is not approved then constituencies are drawn up on the basis of the previous census and elections are held on the same,” Tarar told reporters after a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms chaired by Economic Affairs Minister Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. The law minister’s comments echoed earlier remarks by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, who had said the government could avoid a potential delay to polls by not notifying the census results, which would require a fresh round of delimitations ahead of elections.
Maintaining that the government would make public the recommendations of the parliamentary committee, Tarar said various proposals to amend the Elections Act were in the finalization phase. The proposals, he said, would be converted into a bill that would be tabled in both houses of Parliament prior to the completion of the National Assembly’s constitutional tenure.
The purported decision to stick with the results of the 2017 census have attracted the ire of both the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the MQM-P. JI Karachi President Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Tuesday told media the census results could not be delayed, adding that the people of Karachi deserved to have their full numbers represented in the general elections.
Similarly, MQM-P chief Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui demanded elections be conducted based on the results of the latest census. Stressing that the MQM-P favored timely elections, he said it could not support any polls on the basis of the old census. “It was one of our basic demands when we supported them [ruling coalition]. You can’t decide on your own without taking us on board. It is primarily the responsibility of the PMLN to take us into confidence. The notification regarding fresh census and delimitations are crucial before the next polls,” he said.
The MQM-P has already claimed that millions of residents of Karachi have been added to the Sindh capital’s population in the latest census, which has yet to be officially notified.