7th census put off for lack of equipment

ISLAMABAD: The proceedings for the seventh House and Population Census have been put off for four months due to the delayed procurement of technical equipment.

Sources said that the census was scheduled for the end of August but it is now expected in the last week of December. According to the initial schedule, the results of the census were to be submitted to the Election Commission in December 2022 but the results of the census can now be submitted to the Election Commission by March 2023. This delay in the process of the proposed Digital Census has raised questions about whether the upcoming general elections will be held on the basis of new census data or old data.

The federal government had announced that the upcoming general elections would be held on the basis of a new, digitally-conducted census. The pilot project of software testing of the digital House and Population Census has begun and is being conducted in a few cities for software testing.

The government has already released Rs5 billion for the Digital Census on the request of PBS for the procurement of software and equipment. When contacted, the spokesman for the PBS said that he was unaware of the development and was unable to confirm it.