First-ever digitised census likely from Jan

ISLAMABAD: After failing to meet the initial deadline for conducting the first-ever digitized population census, the government has directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and NADRA to revise the timelines with the possibility to accomplish the important task by end of December 2022 or January 2023. This exercise will be carried out under the foolproof security of armed forces personnel.

The PBS was also assigned to take the Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP) into the loop because they would have to undertake delimitation of constituencies for holding the next general elections of the national and provincial assemblies. The PBS is of the view that the delimitation exercise could be accomplished if the census exercise got accomplished by January 2023 as the number of constituencies could be finalized on the basis of provisional results of the census.

However, the government had remained unable so far to meet timelines mainly because the procurement of 126,000 computer tablets got delayed since the required money was not released well on time. Now the letter of credit has been issued for the procurement of 126,000 tablets through which the data will be captured by census enumerators. The government also asked the PBS to take Sindh into confidence over the proposal for holding census on basis of de jure methodology.

According to an official press release issued by Planning Ministry, the third meeting of Census Monitoring Committee (CMC) was presided over by Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, here on Monday. According to the recommendations of CMC, a pilot census for seventh Population & Housing Census – 2022 was conducted w.e.f. 20th July, 2022 to 3rd August, 2022 in 33 districts throughout the country including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, to test tools and technology before going into the full rollout.The meeting was debriefed on the Pilot Census, finalization of the revised work plan based on timelines provided by NADRA and updates on the meeting with Chief Minister Sindh regarding enumeration methodology.

The meeting was attended by chief secretaries of all provinces/regions with relevant secretaries, additional commissioner Islamabad, DG Military Operations Directorate, Chairman NADRA, MD NTC and senior officers from education, local government, finance and senior officers of PBS.

Dr. Naeemuz Zafar, Chief Statistician informed the participants that Pilot Census was conducted for testing tools and technology, field operation and security mechanisms before the full rollout of Census-2022. PBS has scrutinized the whole process and completed enumeration within 15 days for each block. However, despite the overall success, there were a few shortcomings which will be addressed before the full rollout. All software and hardware will be tested before Census Operation by PBS and NADRA. The PBS has compiled all the issues faced during the exercise and it is very important to present the exact situation to the committee and collaborating partners like NADRA, NTC and SUPARCO etc.

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, emphasized the timely completion of census with the involvement and consultations with all stakeholders like the Election Commission, civil society, academia, politicians and demographers to ensure consensus. He directed PBS to coordinate with Election Commission and include them as a co-opted member of the Census Monitoring Committee. On census timelines, the minister directed the PBS and NADRA to revise census training and tablet procurement respectively. He further advised PBS to make all efforts to get the consent of Sindh government on dejure methodology as they had reservations about the results of the last census.