Pakistan is, finally, going to hold the population census in March this year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has announced. The news was officially revealed by the Chief Statistician of the Bureau, Asif Bajwa, while he was briefing the media in Islamabad.
Census Particulars
According to the initial details, the population census will take place in two phases. In addition, the census will be conducted in all provinces of Pakistan.
While sharing further details, Asif Bajwa publicized that the Police and Rangers shall have the responsibility for the protection of all the staff members who will be involved in steering the census. Moreover, he said that census will require a colossal amount of around 7 billion rupees to be spent over the security arrangements to ensure the glitch free execution of the process. Additionally, some 45,000 security personnel would be deployed to ensure a smooth census process.
Roster of Population Census in Pakistan
Speaking about the schedule of the census across the provinces, Asim Bajwa stated that army personnel will be deployed in regions with sensitive sites. Furthermore, the overall process will kick off from Peshawar and Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) followed by Lahore, Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sargodha in Punjab.
As far as the census in Islamabad is concerned, no in-depth security measures are currently under consideration. The census process in the capital of Pakistan will be completed separately in the first phase.
Census in Balochistan will begin from Quetta followed by Zhob, Sibi and Makran. The revenue generating city of Pakistan, Karachi will be the initial destination for the census in Sindh.
In the second phase, population census will take place in areas such as FATA and Jammu Kashmir.
To conduct the census successfully across Pakistan, essential training is currently being provided to the workers. In addition, the circulation of equipment for carrying out the census is already in progress as well.
Census Background
Under the Ministry of Interior, the then Ministry of Home Affairs, the first census organization in Pakistan was established in 1950. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics conducted first 3 censuses in Pakistan under the concerned ministry.
The last census in Pakistan was conducted 19 years ago in 1998. According to the law, census needs to be conducted every 10 years suggesting that the census in Pakistan should have taken much before, in 2008, instead of now.
While the next year is looming as the Election Year, and there has been NO provision of budget allocation for conducting census this year, do you think census in Pakistan will take place as scheduled? Do share your opinions with us!
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