KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to lodge a protest with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for not including the census issue in the agenda set for the coming meeting of the Council of Common Interests, scheduled to be held on Feb 29 after nine months.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who was surprised to find no mention of the census issue in the nine-point agenda for the CCI meeting, held a meeting for consultation and to decide strategy for the CCI meeting.

Sources close to the Sindh government told Dawn that after initial consultation the chief minister, who is also president of the Sindh PPP, had decided to write a letter to the prime minister to draw his attention to the issue of census, scheduled to be held next month.

In the letter, the sources said, the prime minister’s attention would be drawn to the resolution adopted last Sunday at the multi-party conference on the subject convened by the Sindh PPP.

At the MPC, attended by over 28 political, religious and nationalist parties and representatives of civil society, it was consensus among the participants that the scheduled census was the issue of life and death for Sindh. They had said that they would not allow the federal government to delay or postpone the exercise.

The moot noted with concern that representation of the smaller provinces, including Sindh, had been denied in the census commission and urged the chief minister to take up the issue at the CCI meeting next month.

Besides, the sources said, the Sindh Assembly last week had also passed a resolution unanimously demanding holding of census without any delay and in that connection called for taking the lawmakers on board by holding a briefing in camera. The briefing by the census commissioner is likely on Thursday.

The first census in Pakistan was conducted in 1951, the second in 1961 and the third in 1972 instead of 1971 due to political turmoil. The fourth census was held in March 1981 and the fifth, which was due in 1991, was conducted in March 1998.

Census is deemed to be one of the basic elements for judicious distribution of resources, representation in parliament, electoral processes, tax collection and other civic issues, including growing urbanisation and evaluation of resources for infrastructure development.

Those present at the meeting included senior minister for finance Syed Murad Ali Shah, chief secretary Siddique Memon and principal secretary to the CM Alamuddin Bullu.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2016