Population census, house listing from March 15: CCI

All chief ministers attend CCI meeting; 207,000
military and civilian personnel to be engaged

ISLAAMABD: The Council of Common Interests (CCI) on Friday decided to commence the long-awaited nationwide population census and house listing on March 15 next year.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired the council meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) here.The meeting was attended by the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, KP CM Pervez Khattak and Balochistan CM Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri besides some federal ministers.

Both the operations will be carried out in one go. The CCI decided that the population census will be held in two phases and each phase may be carried out in all the provinces simultaneously.

The census would help in better planning of development activities and judicious sharing of national resources by different regions.The decision has been taken in accordance with the Supreme Court’s instructions pertaining to the process of population headcount from mid-March.

The members of the council also discussed operational difficulties suspected to come up in the way of the process.A committee, comprising secretary statistics and four chief secretaries, would be constituted to address all the implementation issues.It agreed that the census will be carried out in close coordination the provincial governments.

An agenda item pertaining to establishment of national security fund was discussed and it was decided to refer it to National Finance Commission (NFC) viewing it as competent forum for such decision. 

The CCI approved national forest policy in principle and directed the federal minister of climate change to discuss with the provincial governments to ensure no encroachment on provincial powers is made. 

The national forest policy will enable the federal government to provide technical and financial assistance to the provincial governments in line with their own provincial policy framework and to ensure compliance of international conventions. 

The CCI ratified payment of net hydel profit to the government of Punjab. An amount of Rs38.12 billion will be settled by issuance of irrevocable promissory note of one year duration to the government of Punjab by December 2016. 

The balance Rs44.59 billion will be paid in three equal installments after tariff determination by the CCI/Nepra. 

The chief ministers also had a meeting with the prime minister the commencement of the CCI.  Sources said the sixth national population census in Pakistan was initially to be held in March this year but it was postponed. Now this will be done after 18 years. 

According to a rough estimate about 207,000 military and civilian personnel will be engaged in the census.  The constitution provides that the census in the country is conducted every 10 years across the entire nation. The first census was conducted after independence in 1951, and later in 1961, 1972, 1981, and 1998. 

The 1971 census was delayed by one year due to the war, while the census in 1998 was delayed due to political reasons.  The next national census was scheduled to take place in 2008, and later in 2010 but the plan could not materialise.

Multiple census counts were completed for the latest round, with even the latest April 2012 results, subsequently being thrown out as "unreliable".  A UN-led census is to be conducted with staff training and GPS digitisation. As of 2015, the population of Pakistan is estimated at 191.71 million. The March 2017 census would be first of the 21st century’s population count and house listing in Pakistan.