The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday asked the federal authorities to submit a report on requisite preparations being made for the sixth population census which will be held in March 2016. A division bench, headed by SHC Chief Justice Faisal Arab, has taken up a petition filed by Dr Muhammad Siddique Rathore, vice president of the Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP), who moved the court seeking its directives for the respondents to hold population census in the province before holding the local government elections.
At the outset of the hearing, the federal law officer submitted to the bench a copy of the Council of Common Interests' (CCI) decision, stating that it had decided to hold the 6th population census in March 2016. While taking on record the copy of the CCI decision, the court adjourned the hearing till August 11 and asked the law officer to inform it on the next hearing about preparations made for the census. Earlier, the court had directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to make preparations for the census at the earliest as the same has been delayed inordinately.