CCI decides to verify five percent census results

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) decided on Friday to verify five percent results of the census by a third party.

The meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi at the Prime Minister Office, also decided that the process should be completed in the minimum amount of time.

The CCI also decided to form a task force to raise the standard of education across the country. The committee also sought recommendations on a uniform education system in the country and textbooks.

The members also agreed that the reservations pertaining to the import of LNG will be forwarded to the concerned ministry.

Moreover, it was also agreed that gas companies should provide gas to all the villages and communities near gas fields. In Balochistan, gas would be provided to nearby tehsils and districts, participants said.

Chief Ministers of all provinces were invited for the meeting, however, CM Punjab failed to attend the meeting.

The meeting included an eight-point agenda and the participants also discussed national policy on water distribution, LNG import and other matters.

In the last CCI meeting held on November 13, the meeting had approved delimitation of new constituencies on the basis of provisional results of Population Census 2017, paving a way for timely conduct of next general elections.

Pakistan's total population has been recorded at 207.774 million, according to the provisional summary results of the sixth population and housing census.

The annual growth rate has been recorded at 2.4 percent over a time period of 1998 to 2017.

On August 25, a summary was presented at Council of Common Interests. “CCI took note of the position and after detailed discussion allowed the Ministry of Statistics to disseminate the provisional results and directed the PBS to expedite the compilation of the final results,” according to the press release.

However, since the provisional results of the census were made public many political parties have opposed them and demanded census to be held again.