ISLAMABAD: Underscoring the need for much-awaited census in the country, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would be impossible to hold general election in 2018 if the census was not conducted. A two-member bench of the Supreme Court – headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali – heard the suo motu case regarding census and sought clear response from the government on the procedure. Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf appeared on behalf of the federal government and argued before the honorable judges that census was a sensitive matter and it could not be held without army intervention. He said the army’s participation in the process was necessary for credibility of the census. On this, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said that the government “makes every matter sensitive”. The attorney general pleaded before the court for granting him time for consultation with government officials in this case. On the occasion, Justice Qazi Faiz – expressing anger on the government – questioned if the government had credibility. He said the government “avoids matters declaring them sensitive”, adding that it was just a census, not a war. The chief justice asked why there was a need for army’s participation in Lahore and other big cities. He also raised a question that if someone filed a petition in the Election Commission of Pakistan, seeking its directions for not carrying out elections without census, what the government’s point of view would be. The court instructed the attorney general to take a clear response from the government and submit the same during the next hearing of the case. The court adjourned the hearing of the case until after Eid. During the previous hearing, the Supreme Court was informed that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics had decided to hold the census in March 2017. The court had observed that the last population census was held in 1998, and that it should be held every 10 years. The court had also observed that census had a foundational role in a democracy. The court also questioned how the number of seats in parliament could be decided in the absence of census. It said that census was not like an election that had to be held in a single day across the country, adding that it could be held in cities one by one.