Govt plans to hold 7th digital population census

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to move a summary before the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for seeking approval on holding the 7th Digital Population Census next calendar year under the foolproof security of personnel of armed forces.

The Chief Statistician, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Dr. Naeem Ul Zafar, in this regard on Friday granted an extensive briefing to the Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar here at the Planning Ministry.

The federal minister instructed the PBS to give due weightage to incumbent political forces, especially to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) because they were ruling over the second largest province (Sindh) in the country.

After approval of the population census by the CCI, the government would notify the chief census commissioner and the provinces would notify their respective provincial census commissioners respectively

The army’s help will be sought and approximately 250,000 personnel of armed forces will be deployed all over Pakistan with the mandate to ensure foolproof security on the eve of the upcoming Population Census.

This upcoming census will be conducted on a de-jure basis instead of a de-facto basis as everyone will be counted where he or she was living in the last six months.

The next population census will be compiled on computer tablets and the government has estimated to procure 100,000 tablets. Some 600,000 enumerators belonging to education, health, and local government departments will be deputed to fill the questionnaire of population census in detail.

According to an official press release issued after the meeting, the Federal Minister for Planning Development & Special Initiatives Asad Umar chaired the third progress review meeting on the 7th Population & Housing Census 2022 on The Digital Census here in Islamabad on Friday.

The press release said: "A detailed presentation was given on the census work plan and progress. It was informed that the PBS is strictly following the timelines and so far on track to provide the data in December 2022 for provision to the Election Commission for delimitation process for general election 2023.

The Census 2022 questionnaire has been finalized by the committee and the summary for CCI for approval of the execution of the census along with the work plan has been sent. It was further informed that the cabinet on 5th October 2021 has already approved the recommendations of the census advisory committee for forwarding to the CCI.

Keeping in view the challenging timelines and gigantic activity of the first-ever digital census, the PBS is collaborating with different national organizations like National Telecommunication Communication (NTC), NADRA, SUPARCO, NRTC for the provision of services for successful completion of activities.

"Detailed consultative meetings held with all stakeholders and all major preparatory activities will be completed by end of March 2022. It was further informed in the meeting that an advertisement for hiring a firm for a social media campaign for the public has also been prepared.

"Minister PD&SI directed PBS to initiate the sharing of all activities of the census for awareness of all stakeholders and the provinces must be involved in all processes and sensitization seminars may be held at each provincial headquarter for awareness and broader involvement of all stakeholders. He emphasized that quality of services along with timeliness must be kept in mind before finalizing the potential partners. He further directed that proper monitoring of all activities with charts must be done professionally through specially designed software for timely completion of activities. Asad Umar appreciated the work done so far by the PBS and directed it to follow the timelines rigorously and keep him informed on the progress and interventions needed."