The Supreme Court of Pakistan took up a petition against the alleged undercounting of Balochistan’s population in the 2023 census on Monday, where a lawyer claimed that Balochistan’s chief minister was forcibly taken to Islamabad to approve the results.

Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan led the three-member bench that took up the petition filed by Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam Senator Kamran Murtaza. The bench also included Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan remarked during the proceedings that the chief minister of Balochistan had sat in the meeting of the Council of Common Interests that approved the census. He questioned why the census results had not been challenged in the meeting.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Hassan Kamran, told the court that the CM was taken to the CCI meeting against his will. He added that the CM had raised various objections to avoid the meeting and the CCI’s composition was not complete since assemblies had been dissolved in Punjab and KP.

When Justice Mandokhail asked who had taken the CM to Islamabad, Kamran replied that the CM was ‘asleep’ and ws put on a plane and taken to Islamabad.

Justice Ahsan also remarked that only the government could challenge the census under Article 154. However, the petitioner said that he was challenging the census as a citizen of the province under Article 199.

The court then issued notices to the attorney general and advocate general Balochistan and postponed the hearing till next week.

The petition was filed in October claims the results were underrerported by a massive seven million in the province.