‘It is not necessary Karachi’s population will emerge 30 million after census’

Sixty per cent of Pakistan has been enumerated in the ongoing country’s seventh population and house count, which is also its first ever digital census, announced Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) chief statistician Dr Naeem Uz Zafar.

He was speaking at a press briefing at the Provincial Census Coordination Centre in Karachi on Saturday in which only a handful of media persons were invited.

The chief statistician shared that 140 million people had so far been counted in the country and 40 million houses enumerated and geo-tagged.

In Sindh, he said, 9.7 million houses had been geo-tagged and in Karachi 8.5 million people had so far been enumerated.

He said that it was not necessary that the city’s population would emerge as 30 million after the census.

In the first time in the history of Pakistan, he claimed, everyone was being counted in the country. He added that the PBS was gathering a treasure of data and it was the responsibility of the government to make the best use of it. He assured that hotels, schools, madrasas, jails, mosques, shops and all other spaces would be counted and geo-tagged in the census.

The enumeration process, he said, would continue until April 4. He remarked that there was a posh segment in society that did not want to be counted. He said the census was a mandatory exercise and before the current census, six censuses had taken place in Pakistan, all of which were non-digital.

For mapping and security in the census, he said the PBS had secured the services of the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, National Database and Registration Authority and National Technology Council.

He said the concerns of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah regarding the census were genuine. He added that the PBS had invited Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari several times for a briefing on the census, but due to his commitments as the foreign minister, no such briefing could be held.