KARACHI: The Sindh government on Saturday moved a reference under the relevant article of the Constitution, seeking a joint session of parliament against approval of what it called the controversial and faulty census results by the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

In a letter to the Senate chairman and the National Assembly speaker, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has stated that the approval of the controversial and faulty census-2017 was discussed in a Sindh cabinet meeting recently and it was unanimously decided that the issue would be referred to a joint session of the parliament for a final decision.

“You are requested to kindly place the matter before a joint session of the parliament as mandated under the constitution (Article 154 (7),” says the letter seen by Dawn.

CM writes to NA speaker, Senate chairman

Mr Shah has also sent the letter to the president and the prime minister so that “an urgent joint session of the Parliament is summoned to address the issues raised by the Govt. of Sindh in respect of approving the controversial and faulty census results.”

The letter says unfortunately a committee constituted by the federal cabinet on the census results, instead of addressing the concerns of the provinces or even meeting the provincial governments, “unilaterally” proceeded with finalisation of its report. “It is even more unfortunate that the federal cabinet approved the said report on Dec. 23, 2020.”

The letter recalls that when the committee was formed, the chief minister had expressed reservations of the Sindh government. He had warned that any finding of the committee “without addressing the reservations of the provinces would affect the sanctity of the results, therefore the committee should address such reservations before proceeding further.”

The letter says that the federal minister for planning and development had supported this point of view. Therefore, the CCI unanimously decided that the “Committee shall address the concerns of the provinces.”

“It is imperative to state here that it is our duty to follow the decisions made by CCI, even more so on the honourable prime minister who is not only head of the federal govt. but also chairman of the CCI,” the letter observes.

“Unfortunately, for the first time since the creation of CCI, a decision as important as any national cause was taken by way of majority and not unanimously,” the letter says. It argues that even the process of voting did not properly take place and the premier “chose not to take the vote of three federal ministers who were present at the meeting and perhaps assumed that the three ministers will also approve the Census results, which is again an aberration from normal procedure.”

Mr Shah points out that through a letter on April 14, he had submitted his dissenting note to the CCI and copy of the same was sent to the members of the CCI. Regarding the stance of the Sindh government on the census results, the CM believes that the province’s population has been “undercounted” and there is “empirical evidence on record” to substantiate this argument.

The letter says that as per the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, which has been undertaken by all provincial governments in coordination with Unicef, the average number of members of a household in Sindh and Balochistan is 7.2 and 7.7, respectively. However, as per the census results, the average household in Sindh and Balochistan comprises 5.64 and 7.06 persons, respectively.

“Based on this, the total population of Sindh would come to 61,041,938 as opposed to 47,854,510 in 2017 Census,” the letter says. “Similarly, the population of Balochistan would come to 13,444,153 as compared to 12,335,129 in the census. The total population of Pakistan would also come to 210,472,057 as opposed to 200,688,214 in the 2017 Census”

Article 154 (7) of the Constitution under which the Sindh government has moved the reference for a joint session of parliament states that “if the federal government or a provincial government is dissatisfied with a decision of the Council (CCI), it may refer the matter to Parliament in a joint sitting whose decision in this behalf shall be final.”

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2021