ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has urged the government to conduct a population census across the country “as early as possible”, enabling it to carry out delimitation of national and provincial assembly electoral constituencies well before the next general elections in 2018.
Sources said here yesterday that a summary had been sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, asking him to place the matter before the Council of Common Interests for approval.
The population census was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011, but the process is yet to commence.
The house listing exercise, which precedes the main census, was completed in April of 2011. The exercise was marred by glitches and subsequent delays, however. The last time the census was carried out was in 1998. Since then the population has increased 2.3 percent per annum.
The demography of many big cities also had changed substantially. Many Pashto-speaking people moved from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Karachi over the years, changing the political dynamics in some of the city’s areas.
The summary moved by the ECP points out that seats in the National Assembly are allocated to the provinces, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Federal Capital Territory on the basis of the population.
INTERNEWS
