PBS says census conducted in free, fair and transparent manner

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) of the Statistics Division has insisted that the 6th Population and Housing Census-2017 was conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner all over the country, including Orakzai.

The PBS officials were commenting on a recent protest staged by the residents of the erstwhile Orakzai Agency against the census results, population size of Orakzai and a demand for re-holding of census in the agency, which was reported in various section of the press on January 6.

The PBS/Statistics Division clarified that the census was conducted as per the UN recommended Census Methodology and following international practices. They said the UN agencies had endorsed the methodology adopted for census operation and appreciated the head count. The communication said according to the UN recommendations and international principles of census taking, the population is counted at usual place of residence in de-jure method of enumeration. It said the enumeration team had collected information from the respondents, which was recorded in the census form, hence maximum effort was made to enumerate all individuals residing in the census block and it was ensured that no one is left out.

The population moved out of own places of origin has been enumerated where-ever found during the field operation. According to the census methodology, the persons living in the areas for more than six months have been enumerated in the same areas where they were residing on census reference day. The communication said all persons living in Orakzai on the Census Reference Day (18th of March, 2017) were counted during the Census-2017 and their socioeconomic details recorded.

The PBS/Statistics Division said re-holding of census in Orakzai was not possible because population census gives the snap shot of population residing in the country at one point of time which was 18th March, 2017. Hence census is internationally not recommended in piecemeal. The communication said the census was undertaken with 100 per cent support of the armed forces and each and every residence was approached jointly by two the members team. It said Rs 17 billion were spent on the mega project and such exercise cannot be repeated as that burden the exchequer.