Census exercise continues as per schedule, head-count to begin Saturday: Bajwa

ISLAMABAD: The 6th population census exercise is continuing in a smooth manner as per the calendar, under which the house listing has been completed while the head-count of the first phase would begin from Saturday, Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa said Friday.

Addressing a news conference, accompanied by Secretary Statistics Division Dr Shujat Ali and Spokesperson PBS Habibullah Khattak, he said the count would continue for ten days while March 28 has been specified for counting of homeless people.

During the first phase, exercise would be simultaneously conducted in 63 districts all across the country including 16 in Punjab province, eight in Sindh, 14 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 in Balochistan, and five each in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Bajwa said that all the apartments have been given separate number in multi-storey buildings.

Bajwa informed the media persons that following the Supreme Court decision, three categories have been created to include the disabled men, women and transgenders in the count.

However, he added that the survey for internal migration, mortality and fertility would be held after the population census exercise is completed.

He said that the total budget for conducting this important national exercise is about Rs 18.5 billion.

He specified that the budget split to be divided as Rs 6 billion for the Armed Forces who would be overseeing and providing security, Rs 6.5 billion for logistics and the remaining Rs 6 billion for the civilian expenses to conduct the exercise after a hiatus of 19 years.

As many as 118,918 civilian staff and over 200,000 army personnel, adding that each enumerator would be accompanied by a solider and both would be filling their respective forms.

He said that it was ultimate goal of the PBS to make the census process transparent and internationally acceptable and credible, so mechanism has been devised in a way to ensure its validity and credibility.

He informed the media persons that only ball point would be used for filling the forms.

Responding to a question, he said that if any house was missing in the house-listing operation they could access PBS through helpline for inclusion of that house in the process.

Bajwa said that data of foreigners would be compiled separately. “The forms have been devised in a way to separate Pakistanis and non-Pakistanis,” he added.

Bajwa said that earlier, the PBS had printed 40 million census forms, while 11 million were recently printed from Security Printing Press.

It is pertinent to mention here that the 63 districts, where house-listing operation is continuing, include 16 in Punjab province, eight in Sindh, 14 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 in Balochistan, and five each in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan.

These districts include Jhang, Chiniot, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Lahore, Hafizabad, Narowal, Sialkot, Vehari, Bahawalpur, Pakpattan and Attock of Punjab province.

Likewise, in Sindh the listing continues in the districts of Karachi West,Karachi South, Karachi East Korengi, Karachi Central, Malir, Hyderabad and Ghotki.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the districts currently going through the census include Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera, Laki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Abbotabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Battagram, Turghar and Orakzai Agency.

In Balochistan, the districts including Awaran, Quetta, Lesbela, Dera Bughti, Kohlu, Musakhel, Washuq, Kharan, Kalat, Jafarabad, Naseerabad, Pishin, Noshki are are being covered in the first phase.

However, the sources added that in Turbat the census is likely to spread over both the phases of the census exercise.

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the first phase of census would be launched in Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Sudhnoti, Kotli and Bhimber.

Similarly in Gilgit Baltistan, the census during the first phase would be conducted in Gilgit, Baltistan, Ghanche, Nagar and Ghizer districts.

During the second phase, the census exercise would be conducted in the rest 88 districts all across the country, the sources added.

The Bureau has reserved about 10 per cent staff and supervisors, hence bringing the total staff to over 118,000 persons.