7th census delayed for three months

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to revise the timeframe for holding the 7th Population and Housing Census by delaying it for three months.

Now the field work will be conducted from February 1, 2023, to March 4, 2023, for the collection of data from 180,000 census blocks all over the country. Earlier, it was planned that the fieldwork would be done in November 2022, but it was delayed owing to different reasons.

An official announcement made by the Ministry of Planning here on Monday stated that Federal Minister for Planning Development & Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Monday directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to send a fresh summary to the Council of Common Interests and the Prime Minister’s Office with a fresh timeline over the 7th Digital Census 2022.

The minister made these directions while chairing a meeting to review progress on the census 2022. The meeting was attended by the secretary Planning Commission, the chief PBS, the chairman National Database & Registration Authority and other officials.

During the meeting, the minister was apprised of progress on the census. The PBS chief informed him that the earlier summary was submitted after an agreement with the Nadra for conduct of the census w.e.f. October 15, 2022 to November 15, 2022. However, due to delay in opening of the letter of credit due to the prevailing economic situation, the Nadra was unable to provide tablets and informed that all 126,000 tablets would be handed over in installments by December 2022 and the census ERP (complete software solutions) by October 15, 2022 for testing.

Keeping in view the sensitivity of matter, the PBS adjusted the training of master trainers and training of other staffers at the divisional level in November and December 2022. However, as training at the Tehsil level for 120,000 field staff cannot be initiated before the complete handover of tablets. Therefore, after all considerations and running activities in parallel, the timelines has been revised and now the field work will be conducted w.e.f. 1st February, 2023 to 4th March, 2023 and results after the conduct of post-enumeration survey will be handed over to the ECP by 30th April, 2023 for delimitation purposes.

However, the minister expressed concerns over the extension of the deadline and asked the PBS to urgently intimate to the CCI and the PM Office due to sensitivity of matter. He emphasized that the further delay could not be acceptable as the next elections would be based on this census. He directed the PBS to ensure the quality of training at the Tehsil level. He advised including the HEC and academia to monitor training at the Tehsil level as quality training was essential for credible and reliable data. He said the assessment should be done by an independent third body.

The PBS chief informed the minister that so far, the Nadra had handed over 22,000 tables for the census, which had been hardened and were now ready to dispatch and the remaining would be handed over soon. He apprised that 21,600 more tablets would reach the PBS on Monday and would be in the hardening process soon. It was further informed that the training of master trainers would be started from November 28 to December 10, 2022 and self-enumerations would be started from January 15, 2023.

The minister directed expediting the process and strictly adhering to the revised timeline, keeping in view the sensitivity of matter.