The sixth Housing and Population Census began after a period of 19 years on March 15. Photo: file

ISLAMABAD: Federal government refused to provide Sindh government with census records on Monday, deepening the rift between the two governments over census results.

According to Geo News, Consultant to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Census Asif Bajwa said that the record cannot be provided to the Sindh government until the law is amended.

He explained that Sindh government had asked for records of Form II and census blocks. ?We will abide to keeping the census record a secret,? he remarked.

People of Sindh have reservations against census results, says CM Shah

Shah said that the federal government should announce elections in due time

Sindh government had rejected the provisional results of the sixth population census by terming the results as a conspiracy against the province by the federal government.

Speaking over the issue, provisional Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that it is very much clear that the people of Sindh have reservations against the census results; the statistics department should share the details of blocks with the Sindh government so that it could be counter-checked.

He said that the Sindh government would like to see the next elections based on the provincial results of the census, and for it, amendments need to be done in the Constitution.

The federal government rejected the reservations raised by the Sindh's political parties and said the process of conducting the census was transparent.

It added that all provinces had monitoring committees which were briefed on a regular basis while the census was being conducted.

The government further said that additional time was given to address all reservations and complaints.

Results released for the citywide population in the provisional census conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics show that Karachi?s population has ballooned to 14.9 million people in 2017 as compared to 9.39 million in 1998.

Thirty-three percent of Sindh?s 47.9 million-strong population lives in the province?s two major cities, Karachi and Hyderabad.

Pakistan?s population reaches 208 million: provisional census results

The annual growth rate has been recorded at 2.4pc over a time period of 1998 to 2017

While the provincial capital?s population grew by 59pc in nineteen years, Hyderabad?s population only grew by 0.6 million during the same time.

The sixth Housing and Population Census began after a period of 19 years on March 15. The census was conducted in 16 districts of Punjab, eight districts of Sindh, 14 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 districts of Balochistan, five districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and five districts of Gilgit-Baltistan.