By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that the next general elections would be held on the basis of the latest census, sparking a row with opposition and coalition parties who fear a delay in the vote.
Sharif, who took over as premier after a parliamentary vote ousted cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s government in 2022, said the elections should be held according to the digital census conducted earlier this year.
The premier also confirmed that the current assemblies would be dissolved before their term expires in November, paving the way for a caretaker government to oversee the polls. Pakistan is due to hold general elections by November this year.
“We have to hold the elections on the basis of the new census… When a census has been conducted, the [polls] should be held on its basis unless there is an obstacle that cannot be overcome. But I don’t see [any such hurdle],” he said in an interview with private Aaj TV.
He said the census results would be presented to a meeting of the Council of Common Interests, a body that includes all four provincial chief ministers, for approval.
But the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has already expressed its inability to hold the polls on the basis of the new census, saying it would require a constitutional amendment and a fresh delimitation of constituencies.
The ECP has also said that holding elections on time was its responsibility and it was ready to do so.
The key coalition partner in Islamabad Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has opposed the idea of holding elections under the new census, saying it had reservations over the accuracy of the count and feared it would reduce the province’s representation in parliament.
The party’s central information secretary Faisal Karim Kundi said his party would never accept elections under the new census and would take up the issue with the prime minister soon.
“Our reservations have so far not been addressed,” Faisal Karim Kundi, PPP’s central information secretary, told reporters. “Elections will be delayed if the issue of holding polls under new census is raised at this stage.”
The PPP currently rules Sindh province, while Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has a majority in Punjab, the country’s most populous and politically influential province.
Another coalition partner, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), which represents urban areas of Sindh, has demanded elections under the new census, saying it would increase its seats in parliament.
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