7th Digital Population & Housing census -2023: Minister directs provinces to complete operation till 15th

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday directed provincial governments to complete the ongoing field operation of 7th Digital Population and Housing-2023 census till May 15.

The minister made these directions while chairing a Census Monitoring Committee (CMC) meeting to review progress over the ongoing exercise of census field operation.

The meeting was attended by the Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque, Chief Census Commissioner, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Dr Naeemuz Zafar, provincial Chief Statistician, and other stakeholders.

It is noted that on May 1 the government had extended the field operation of 7th Population and Housing-2023 census till May 15, 2023. During the meeting, Chief Census Commissioner apprised the minister of the progress of field operation and the targets achieved by the PBS since the deadline had been extended on May 1.

He informed the meeting that the Demographer Committee constituted in pursuance of the decision of the 9th meeting of CMC for analysis is the demographic trends by studying the growth rate. According to him, the other factors in the abnormal blocks after detailed deliberations recommended opening those districts all over Pakistan for at least 10 days’ whose population growth is less than 1.5, while closing other districts above the average.

Accordingly, after approval of CMC, the districts of growth rate less than 1.5 were closed all over Pakistan but on request of CM Sindh, it remained open for enumeration from May 1 to 15.

The planning minister directed provincial chief commissioners to fill the gaps identified by the PBS and complete the exercise on May 15 which is the closing date of the exercise. “Finish this exercise on May 15 so that the Census report can be submitted to the CII for final approval," said the minister, while reiterating that this is the national exercise and all eyes are on the government.

The minister further added that there should be no controversy over the huge exercise as the country is already facing the worst crisis while directing all the stakeholders to use all their resources to make this exercise successful.

The government has spent Rs34 billion for this digital census and in order to ensure good governance, the government needs to have accurate data about the population and its distribution. It is noted that after sending a report to the CII Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will take four months for delimitation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023