Provisional census data to be available by end of July

ISLAMABAD: Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa on Thursday assured Finance Minister Ishaq Dar that the provisional census results would be made available as per the timeline given i.e. by end of July, 2017.

Asif Bajwa, will be completing his term on July 4, 2017 as Chief Statistician of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) so the upcoming head of PBS will present provisional census results with the Council of Common Interest (CCI) by end of July this year. The government had already advertised the post of Chief Statistician and it was expected that the new head would be selected through process but the final summary would be approved by the prime minister.

According to Finance Ministry’s statement issued here on Thursday, Finance Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar here on Thursday chaired a briefing session on the recently held Population and Housing Census 2017. Chief Statistician, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS)/Chief Census Commissioner, Asif Bajwa informed that the field operation of the 6th population Census concluded on 24th May 2017. During the process, 151 districts of all the four provinces, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) were covered. The census was conducted in two phases and during the process 63 districts were covered in first phase while 88 districts were covered in the second phase. The first phase started on 15th March and ended on April 13 while the second phase of the census exercise was initiated on April 25 which concluded on 24th May.

Asif Bajwa added that services of 119,000 enumerators and supervisory staff were utilised in collecting data from about 168,540 census blocks throughout the country. In addition to civilian field staff, 200,000 army personnel were engaged as enumerators as well as to provide security to the census teams. He said that all the census-related record and material has been safely retrieved under the supervision of Armed Forces personnel. Its sorting and stacking has also been completed, he added.

The chief statistician/chief census commissioner assured the finance minister that the provisional census results would be made available as per the timeline given i.e. by end of July, 2017.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said it was heartening to note that international independent observers, who visited different places and interacted with people during the process, had termed population census exercise satisfactory. Further, the whole process was conducted in accordance with the given timelines. He was also appreciative of the fact that barring a few incidents, the process remained peaceful. He said the credit for smooth conduct of the Population & Housing Census goes to the whole PBS team, the Armed Forces personnel, the provincial governments and security Agencies throughout the country. The overwhelming participation and support by the general public and their interest in the whole process was highly encouraging. The finance minister said that the last census was conducted in 1998 by the PML-N government.

Finance minister called upon PBS officials to compile the results within the given time line as the data would prove highly beneficial for better economic planning and development.