No substitute for census

This refers to the letter, ‘Alternate census’ (February 10) by Khawaja Tajammul Hussain. The basic objective of the population census is to determine the makeup of the population and its geographical dispersion in order to arrange equitable resource allocation and service delivery.

As for the Nadra database, a vast number of people in remote locations may not even be registered with the authority, while over the years others having moved to new locations/cities may still be registered with Nadra at old addresses. Obviously, this rules out the Nadra database as a substitute for the population census.

S R H Hashmi

Karachi