Census by end of March 2016

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army has agreed to deploy its troops in all 165,000 blocks along with civilian enumerators during the upcoming population census exercise, scheduled to be held by the last week of March 2016.
“The population census will be completed during 19 days exercise in which first three days will be utilised for house listing while 15 days will be required to count the population from all over the country. The remaining one day will be utilised for counting homeless people,” a top official of the government disclosed to The News in an exclusive background chat here on Wednesday.
The population census will be completed in one phase including conducting house listing and headcount exactly on the pattern of 1998 census in order to avoid any controversy for spreading it into two separate phases.
During the tenure of the last PPP led regime in 2011-12, the census was planned in two phases and housing census had struck controversy that resulted into scrapping this exercise.
In the aftermath of getting an approval from the Council of Common Interest (CCI) by the incumbent regime, the whole plan for undertaking the census exercise was finalised with the General Headquarters (GHQ) whereby they agreed to spare their troops to accomplish this important exercise in a smooth manner.
During the 1998 Census, the Pakistan Army had deployed 130,000 personnel for assisting the civil workforce to complete the census without creating any controversy. This time, one army personnel will be deputed along with one enumerator in all the 165,000 blocks of the country.
“Now the deployment plan in consultation with GHQ has been finalised,” said the official. He said that the last census held in 1998 that was undertaken with the help of army to remove the controversies and this time it was again decided to accomplish this task with the help of the army.
Finance Ministry allocated Rs14.5 billion for holding the population census during March/April period of the current financial year. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) sought funding of Rs640 million as first installment for July-Sept period which is expected to be released shortly.
“Without reducing the overall allocated amount for the population census, some cost rationalisation for certain component was done and now the required amount would be released shortly,” one top official of the Finance Division said.
The PBS, the sources said, had published 4-5 machine readable forms and preparatory arrangements were finalised but procedural delays in release of funding could cause a stumbling block in the way of completing this exercise within the desired timeline.
“So the Ministry of Finance should place special arrangement or put the whole allocated amount into the account of PBS in order to avoid delays because they will have to procure the required machinery, equipment, stationary and other materials by adhering to the rules and procedures in accordance with the PPRA laws,” said the official.
When contacted, Chief Statistical Officer of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Asif Bajwa said that they were not lagging behind the schedule and everything was so far on track. He said that he was going to chair an internal meeting in his office this afternoon to finalise the arrangements.
When asked about the release of the first instalment against their required amount, he said that all procedural requirements were completed and the amount was expected to be released this week.