2018 elections cannot be held based on census results: PBS

LAHORE: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) told the Senate on Friday that the 2018 elections could not be held on the basis of the 2017 census results.

PBS Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa told the Senate Standing Committee on Privatisation and Statistics that the elections would be delayed in case the government persists on using the latest census results for the elections.

He further said that the final results of the census will be released after April 2018 and following the release of the results, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would need four months for the delimitation of constituencies in the country. This would delay the elections for months ahead of the expected time.

Bajwa told the ECP in June that the results of the census will be delivered to the ECP in April 2018. ECP chief then told Bajwa that commission would not be able to process and utilize the data in time for the elections and as a result, the elections would have to be delayed.

2018 elections cannot be held based on census results: PBS