Ahsan Iqbal appreciates effort made by PBS for establishing digital system for the conduct of census

ISLAMABAD, April 28 (SABAH): A briefing session was organized by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) at Statistics House Islamabad for the Chief Ministers, Federal Ministers, Members of Parliaments regarding 7th Population and Housing Census, 1st ever Digital Census. The objective of briefing was to apprise the Members about the process and progress of the census as well as to get their feedback to allay their concerns for ensuring complete coverage, transparency, wider acceptability and attain the confidence on this paramount national task.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhry welcome the Members for sparing their valuable times for this briefing. The Chief Census Commissioner Dr. Naeem uz Zafar gave detailed presentation on the background, process, methodology as well various milestones achieved for the conduct of the census and role of various stakeholder including NADRA, SUPARCO, NTC, Provincial Governments and Pak Army for the conduct of the census. He briefed that the 1st digital system for the conduct of the census established with tireless efforts of the stakeholders. He also shared the progress of the census made till now as well as population counted till now.

The members appreciated the efforts made by PBS for developing the digital system for the conduct of the census. Some of the members highlighted their concerns relating to under coverage in some area.

Ahsan Iqbal assured the utmost efforts will be made to ensure the complete coverage and urged provincial governments to play their vital role for early completion of the census by ensuring complete coverage. He appreciated the effort made by PBS for establishing digital system for the conduct of the census. He highlighted that with the help of this system under and over reporting issues were diagnosed on instant basis for their redressal during the field operation.

The participants were informed that how PBS used Digital System for immediate decision making to identify block with low coverage and shared the lists of blocks with under enumeration, leftover structures in high rise buildings, one member/ two member household and the blocks with negative growth rate as compared to 2017. PBS for facilitation of Provincial governments and in order to ensure complete coverage , deputed teams from H/Q in big cities like Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Hyderabad etc. which resulted in increase of over 8 million population in already completed blocks with inclusion of 423189 households. The glaring increase observed in Karachi with 2.28 million and Lahore 1.08 million through the PBS proactive initiative.

All the stakeholders appreciated the PBS efforts and emphasized to continue the sharing of data for assurance of complete Coverage. The Chief Census Commissioner shared the population count of the 7th Population and Housing Census of Pakistan with the participants as well as share the issues faced during field operation. He briefed that census field operation is still continue and uptill now about 40 million structures have been geo tagged and over 237.5 million person have been counted across the country till now.

The province wise population counted till to date is over 116 million in Punjab, 54 million in Sindh, 39 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 19.7 million in Balochistan. It is pertinent to mention that census field operation is still continue to ensure complete coverage and the said figures are provisional.

Muhammad Sarwar Gondal briefed regarding the Digital architecture of the system, during the visit to the Call center and the census control center. He informed regarding robust Complaint Management System through call center and the working of 17 working groups for redressal of problems faced during field operation.

The participants showed their satisfaction over Digital System and appreciated efforts of PBS. They hoped that the first Digital Census of Pakistan will provide reliable data for policy, Planning and allocation of resources. In the end, all participants recommended to extend the field enumeration for 15 days for complete coverage and address the concerns of the stakeholders.

It was agreed in principle to extend the field operation date but the modalities will be finalized in the meeting under the Chair of Minister for PD&SI with Chief Secretaries scheduled to be held today (Saturday), subject to approval by Census Monitoring Committee.

The Chief Census Commissioner urged that all stakeholders including Parliamentarian and Leaders of Political Parties as well as General Public may lodge their complaints and specific concern relating to under coverage with respective Provincial Census Commissioners on immediate basis for ensuring completed coverage to count every person residing in the country.