ISLAMABAD: On recommendations of provinces, the Census Monitoring Committee led by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, extended the field operation for third time of 7th Population and Housing Census till 20th April, 2023 in big cities to ensure complete coverage.
The 11th meeting of Census Monitoring Committee was held under the chair of Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Prof Ahsan Iqbal here on Saturday.
Earlier, on Monday, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) extended the date for the census completion till April 15 on the recommendation of the provincial governments.
In a statement, the PBS spokesperson said that Pakistan’s total population has reached 234 million (23.4 crores), increasing by 8.06 percent as compared to 2017.
The spokesperson noted that the country’s population swelled by 10.71 million as compared to the statistics of 2017.
He informed that 100 percent census work has been completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Kashmir, 99 percent in Punjab, 98 percent in Sindh, 90 percent in Islamabad and 82 percent in Balochistan.
On April 5, the bureau said that more than 90 per cent of work was completed in Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, according to official data released, Islamabad and Balochistan lagged significantly behind, with 72% and 62% of work completed so far, respectively.
The fieldwork of the census in Karachi will also be extended for the third time. A meeting in this connection has been convened under the chair of the chief census commissioner.
According to a third-party audit, the census is yet to be held in 30% area of the city. Sources said that the PBS officials agree that the fieldwork must be continued in areas where the census has not been completed yet.
‘Minister chairs 11th meeting of Census Monitoring Committee’
Meanwhile, Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal chaired the 11th meeting of Census Monitoring Committee on Saturday to review the progress of field operation of digital census and other allied matters.
Chief Census Commissioner Dr Naeemuz Zafar presented the progress of the census operation. He apprised the forum that out of 156 districts, 100 percent work has been completed in 122 districts while over 90% work has been completed in remaining districts.
Overall, 230 million population has been enumerated and 40 million households have been geo-tagged. Zafar apprised that the extension proved to be very successful, enumerating an additional 5 million people in 80 thousand households.
It was also informed that after conducting an in-depth analysis to identify the reason behind undercount, teams of officers from PBS Headquarter are facilitating DCS and ACS by visiting big cities like Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and Peshawar etc. to ensure complete coverage of all structures/houses and leftover structures.
As a result of this exercise significant increase has been seen in population and no of households.
During the meeting, Ahsan Iqbal lauded the efforts that have been made on ground to detect the causes of undercount then working that has been done to improve the population specially after extension.
He said that completion of 122 districts is a clear indication that the exercise is going to be completed with success. He monitored the progress of all provinces and asked them to indicate if further extension is required. “The operation must be concluded with mutual consensus and with the assurance that no controversy should left behind,” he said.
On the other hand, Federal IT Minister Ameenul Haq appreciated the work done by PBS team and all stakeholders for conduct of this National exercise and identifying the abnormalities timely for rectification of the same to avoid any controversy on results of the national gigantic exercise and ownership of process.
He proposed to extend the census operations till 20th April, 2023 in big cities for complete coverage.
Keeping in view the recommendations of provinces, the Field operation of 7th Population and housing Census has been extended till 20th April, 2023 by Census Monitoring Committee to ensure complete coverage.
