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ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Tuesday ruled out direct role of Pakistan Army in the upcoming population census, saying that the armed force would only be restricted to security.
The planning minister expressed his views while addressing the inauguration ceremony of Pakistan’s first National Census Coordination Center (N3C) at the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in Islamabad.
During the ceremony, Umar unveiled the roadmap for the 7th digital population and housing census, saying that the final results of the digital census would be announced by December 2022 and subsequent elections will be based on the results.
He said that in May-June this year, the government would conduct a pilot test of the census to test the whole process for risk management and disaster recovery, and for successful conduct of digital census.
In September-December, he said the main field work would be held while in November post sampling enumeration would be done. “In today’s era of modern technology it was vital to hold the census more often compared to the past when the census used to be held with a huge gap of 15 to 18 years,” he added.
Umar regretted that a foundational process, which was the basic pillar of the country’s planning and development, was not given due importance in the past. “Without a transparent and timely conduction of population census, the resources’ distribution amongst various areas of the country will not be ensured,” he added.
The minister further said in order to make the exercise successful, the coordination of the provinces was instrumental. The PBS management has been asked to share details regarding the seventh population census with the media to ensure transparency and to identify any drawbacks.
Responding to a question, the minister said that the digital system will be completely secure as it will not be internet-based. Moreover, to further ensure security, all relevant stakeholders, including the IT Ministry, National Telecom Corporation (NTC) and NRTG have been taken on board.
Umar stressed the importance of the census, stating that it is a constitutional requirement to hold elections on the basis of the latest population and housing census.
Before inaugurating the N3C, the minister said that the government’s plan to hold a digital census by utilising modern technology will be a first of its kind for Pakistan. He assured the system will be efficient and ensure transparency and data accuracy.
Umar also mentioned that an amount of Rs5 billion had been allocated for the census during the current year’s budget, while the remaining budget will be allocated in the upcoming fiscal year. He added that approximately Rs10 billion will be spent on the procurement of software and hardware for conducting the digital census.
The road map
Briefing on the road map, Chief Statistician PBS, Dr Naeem Zafar said the exercise of appointment of staff will be held in March 2022, while training of field staff for the pilot will be done from April 15 to 30.
Similarly, the pilot census (2000 blocks approximately) will be held from May 15 to June 15, while the enumeration work (first step-self enumeration) will be done from July 15 to 30.
The first block for house listing operation will be held from August 1 to3 and the operation for the second block will be held from 16-18 of the same month. Face-to-face interviews in the first block will be held from August 4-5 and the interviews for the second block will be held from August 19 to 31.
The PBS will hand over the summary results to the Election Commission of Pakistan on December 31, while the data cleansing, imputation rules and detailed results will be announced from January to February 2023.
