Digital census: PBS to address Sindh CM’s concerns today

ISLAMABAD: Chief Statistician of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Dr Naeem uz Zafar and his technical team will meet Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah today to address his concerns over the ongoing first-ever digital population census 2023.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal Tuesday chaired the 7th Census Monitoring Committee meeting here to review the progress in the country’s first-ever digital census and decided to address Sindh’s concerns.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, chief secretaries Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, chairman Nadra, chairman Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and other representatives attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed the progress in the digital census. Chief Statistician Dr. Naeem Zafar briefed the meeting.

It was decided that the Census Monitoring Committee will meet every week for better coordination and to resolve all the problems immediately.

Chairing the meeting, the federal minister directed the PBS chief to meet the Sindh chief minister along with his technical team on Wednesday (today) to address his concerns.

The chief minister appreciated the efforts of the planning minister.

The minister said the government will take all the provinces on board and remove the concerns of the Sindh province. He said the government believed in taking all decisions by consensus. “The digital census will have an impact on the future of Pakistan and I cannot afford any kind of controversy and will not compromise on its transparency,” remarked the minister. He said all resources were being provided by the federal govt to complete the process, as it was a national agenda and the general elections would be based on this census. “Some miscreants want to sabotage this census, but it is our responsibility to focus on this exercise by ensuring its transparency and accuracy,” said the minister, adding that the federal government was responsible for making the whole process successful by taking on board all the stakeholders.