KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday sought the progress report about the decision over the national census 2017 results in the next session of the Council of Common Interest (CCI).

A division bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, sought the report while hearing the petitions regarding finalization of the results of the population census and delimitation of constituencies in Karachi for the local government elections.

Representatives of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and of the CCI appeared in the hearing.

The federal government submitted a report in the court which stated that the federal cabinet had approved the population census, and the matter had been sent to the CCI for its endorsement.

“When would the CCI meeting be held?” the court inquired from the officials of the federal government, who informed the court that it would be held in two weeks’ time.

“When the matter has been approved by the federal cabinet why an inordinate delay in the CCI?” the bench questioned the federal lawyer.

The court issued orders for an early decision by the CCI over the census results in its next session.

Lawyers for the petitioners had argued that unless the results of the census were officially declared and notified, the delimitation exercise for local government elections would be useless, and thus the petitioners approached the court for directions for finalization of the census results.

Meanwhile, a division bench of the SHC directed authorities to take action against illegal CNG workshops in the province and summoned a progress report on February 23.

The court was hearing petitions filed in 2019 against the use of CNG and LNG cylinders in public transport and school vans.

The bench rebuked the authorities for their slow pace in acting against the unlicensed CNG kits in the province.

The court asked: “What is the Traffic DIG even doing? Is anyone even checking up on what’s going on in workshops?”

The Traffic DIG said that his role was to control traffic management.

Let’s summon the Sindh IG then, the bench remarked.

The Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan lawyer said that they only checked the licences of the cylinders that were brought to them. “What’s the purpose of your institution then?” the court asked.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021