The 29th meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at PM Office, today.
The issue of Census 2016 was discussed in detail. Secretary Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) informed the meeting that in continuation of decision taken in previous CCI meeting held on 29th February 2016, series of meetings were held with provincial governments and armed forces. It was informed that since transparency of Census operation was vital for future planning, about 300,000 troops are required to ensure man to man coverage as well as to lend credibility and security to census operation.
The meeting was informed that due to engagement of the Armed Forces in operations of Shawal and Zarb-e-Azb the required number of troops cannot be spared at this stage.
The option of having phased census was also discussed during the meeting. However, the meeting was briefed by PBS that phased census was not desirable due to inherent flaws and in any case phased census was not in line with international best practices particularly keeping in view some specific factors related to Pakistan which can raise serious contentions on the credibility of the exercise.
It was, therefore, unanimously decided that census shall be postponed and a new date may be finalised in due course in consultation with provincial governments and Armed Forces.
The CCI meeting also discussed the issue of National Flood Protection Plan. All the stakeholders unanimously decided to constitute a Committee (comprising of four Chief Ministers, Federal Minister for Water and Power and Federal Minister for Climate Change) to finalise the plan.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Ishaq Dar, Minister for Fiannce; Pir Sadruddin Shah Rashidi, Minister for Overseas; Lt. Gen. Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister of SAFRON; Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, Minister for Religious Affairs; Mr. Zahid Hamid, Minister for Climate Change; Mr. Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Minister for IPC; Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Water & Power; provincial Chief Ministers, Provincial Chief Secretaries and other senior government officers.
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