Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday said the government had decided not to notify the latest census and that upcoming elections would be held on the basis of the 2017 census.

“The CCI (Council of Common Interests) has to complete its term. If this [new] census is not notified by then, the elections will be [held] on the basis of the previous census and delimitation.

“And the government has decided it will not notify this [new census] and when the assemblies will dissolve after completing their terms, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will be bound to conduct elections on the basis of the previous census,” he said while speaking on Geo News show ‘Naya Pakistan’.

Asked if he meant the CCI would not notify the new census, Sanaullah said,the government would not be notifying the census as it had “issues”. Moreover, various stakeholders also had concerns over it, he added.

Pressed further regarding the reservations of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, an ally of the government in the Centre, about the 2017 census, Sanaullah said the party was unsatisfied with the new digital census as well.

“They don’t [even] accept this new census.”

He further said that there were also complaints about the new census in Balochistan as well.

Stressing that there should be consensus on census results, he said it was important that all issues were sorted out and any decision in haste on the census could lead to a “controversial situation” in the country.

And developing a consensus on the census so that all parties were confident about it would “take time”.

Separately, on the consultation process for nominees for the caretaker prime minister, Sanaullah said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was working on the matter, adding that the process could be completed in a week or 10 days.

“The prime minister will consult the leader of the opposition and allies on it,” he added.

Polls ‘not possible’ under latest delimitation

Last month, a senior ECP official had said conducting the upcoming general polls on the basis of the latest delimitation was out of question with the results of the digital census yet to be formally notified.

“The general elections 2023 for the national and provincial assemblies will be conducted as per the limits of the constituencies published by the Commission on August 5 last year,” he had told Dawn.

The remarks had come ahead of a post-enumeration survey scheduled to start on July 8, and plans to submit a report to the CCI by July 31, amidst claims by various federal ministers that the forthcoming polls would be preceded by a fresh delimitation exercise.

He had said that under Article 51(5) of the Constitution and Section 17 (2) of the Elections Act, the final published data was required for the purpose of delimitation of constituencies, and the commission was bound to start the delimitation process once the census was officially published.

Seats in the National Assembly are allocated to each province and federal territory based on the population according to the last preceding officially published census, under Article-51(3) of the Constitution.

Therefore, a constitutional amendment would be required following the official publication of census results, which was technically not possible after the acceptance of the resignations of PTI lawmakers, he had said.

The official had told Dawn that a fresh delimitation exercise, which takes around four to six months, would make it impossible to conduct the general polls due before October 12 this year.

He had said the belated exercise of a fresh census with general elections just around the corner made it practically impossible for the ECP to carry out fresh delimitation for the upcoming general elections.

“The ECP will have no other option but to hold upcoming general elections on the basis of the existing delimitation,” he had said. He said the ECP had been asking the government to publish official results of the seventh population and housing census by December 31, 2022.

Once the census was published, the ECP would require more than four months to carry out a fresh delimitation exercise.

Under the Constitution, it is imperative for the commission to carry out fresh delimitation of all the constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies before the next general elections.