Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin informed the Senate on Friday that the national census was a long exercise but assured the lawmakers sufficient funds would be provided to ensure a fair conduct of the population count, Tribune.
He also informed the upper house of parliament that an amount of Rs5 billion had been allocated at an initial stage for financial year 2021-22, adding that the provinces would also provide their due share for the census.
Last month, Planning Minister Asad Umar had said that “the general elections of 2023 will be held as per new census”. He had also said that the census in 2017 was held after a gap of 19 years but it became controversial as some political parties had reservations to the exercise and its findings.
Meanwhile, responding to a calling attention notice from Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that the flight operations of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had been affected due to the coronavirus pandemic as it had to curtail its frequency and seating capacity.
He said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had imposed fines on those airliners that made 100% booking of their flights despite the Covid-related restrictions. He added that the PIA had operated special flights to facilitate Pakistanis stranded in different countries due to the international air travel restrictions.
