ISLAMABAD
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to principal law officer of Pakistan and Balochistan Advocate General in response to a plea challenging the Balochistan census results.
Earlier, the petitioner, Hasan Kamran had invoked jurisdiction of Balochistan High Court (BHC) , however, upon rejection of the plea the petitioner moved to the Supreme Court.
Challenging the BHC decision in the matter the petitioner urged the top court to declare the High Court’s August 29 decision as void.
The petitioner is of the view that Balochistan population had been reported to be around 21.7 million till the final phase of the census process. However, in the final report Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in its meeting, the population of Balochistan was reduced to 14.89 million.
A three-member SC bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan took up the plea challenging the census results in Balochistan. In his arguments before the court counsel for the petitioner Kamran Murtaza claimed that caretaker Balochistan CM was ‘forced’ to attend the CCI meeting to endorse the census results. The caretaker CM avoided attending the CCI meeting as it was ‘incomplete’, Kamran Murtaza said and alleged ‘the chief minister was transported to Islamabad via airplane for the CCI meeting”. A member of the bench Justice Jamal Mandokhail asked Murtaza who forced his client to attend the meeting. Justice Ahsan noted that the Balochistan CM himself okayed the census results and no one in the meeting objected to the results.
Later, the court while issuing notices to the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) and Advocate General Balochistan to assist the SC on the legal matter and adjourned the hearing for a week.
