KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the Council of Common Interests (CCI), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), and Sindh chief secretary to file their comments on a petition challenging the results of the recently concluded census.

The petition against the census results was filed by Iqbal Kazmi of the Pakistan Qaumi Movement, who asked the court to order the formation of a judicial commission and conduct a fresh census under the commission`s supervision.

The civil rights campaigner submitted in his petition that the results of the census were notaccurate and were doctored to trample rights of the people.

`Rights should not be usurped on the basis of their language, ethnicity, and religion,` he argued.

Mr Kazmi asked the SHC to direct the authorities concerned to carry out census exercise afresh under the supervision of a judicial commission to ensure transparency throughout the process.

He also asked the court to stay the general election, scheduled to be held in June next year, until the fresh census was carried out.

The two-judge bench issued notices to the respondents and law officers of the provincial and federal governments, directing them to ensure the submission of their respective comments by the next hearing, which would be later pronounced by the court`s office.

According to the provisional census results, the country`s` current population is 207.7 million against 132 million counted in the last census in 1998. The statis-tics showed that the population of the country was showing 2.7 per cent annual growth rate over the period from 1998 to 2017.

Almost all the major parties of Sindh, including the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi MovementPakistan and Pak Sarzameen Party, have expressed their reservations over the census results.

Contempt case against K-Electric chief A division bench gave a last chance to the chairman of K-Electric, Waqar H. Siddiqui, to file his reply on a contempt of court application against him and others for flouting the court`s order on the petition of a consumer.

Shah Zahid Hussain, represented by advocate Ishrat Ghazali, submitted in the contempt application that the alleged contemnors had deliberately defied the court directive for restoring electricity of the petitioner and maintaining thestatus quo till the next date of hearing.

The court had suspended the disputed bill issued to the petitioner for July.

The applicant consumer stated that the alleged contemnors had illegally issued yet another new bill of Rs51,000 for August instead of adjusting the excess amount already received from him.

Another petition against repeal of NAB law A two-judge bench of the SHC issued a notice to the provincial government in yet another petition against a new provincial law that repeals the applicability of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), better known as the NAB Ordinance, in the province.

The petition, sixth in a row, was filed by the Sindh United Party. Earlier, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf andcivil rights campaigners had file identical petitions against the new provincial law.

The bench put off the hearing to Sept 11.

The Sindh Assembly on July 3 passed the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 Sindh Repeal Bill, 2017 that repealed the applicability of the NAB Ordinance to departments and autonomous bodies controlled by the provincialgovernment. It also approved the establishment of a provincial accountability agency that would replace the decades-old Anti-Corruption Establishment.

According to the petitioners, the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 Sindh Repeal Act, 2017 is an attempt by the Pakistan Peoples Party, the ruling party in the province, to protect its corruption. They claimed that the law was against the basic scheme of the Constitution.

Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair had refused to sign the bill and sent it back to the provincial government with objec-tions after it was first approved by the provincial assembly on July 3.

Later on July 27, the provincial assembly passed a new draft bill after the Sindh cabinet discussed the observations made by the governor.

However, the governor did not give his assent the second time either.

Under the new law, the Sindh government would establish accountability courts in the province which would be headed by a district and sessions judge (DJ), or a person qualified to be appointed DJ.

There would also be an accountability commission comprising the chairman of the agency, the advocate general of the province, prosecutor general, director general and director for investigation of the agency.

The commission would review the progress of cases of corruption and recommend to the government steps for the eradication of corruption in Sindh.