Census to cover 87 districts in final phase

ISLAMABAD: The ongoing population census will on Tuesday enter its final phase during which it will cover 87 districts of the country.

This phase will continue till May 24 and will also cover the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, along with six Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

“All arrangements have been put in place for the second phase of the census. The field staff have received the required material,” Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa told a news conference here on Monday.

Elaborating, Mr Bajwa said the second phase would cover 21 districts each in Punjab and Sindh, 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 17 in Balochistan and five in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The first phase of the exercise ended on April 15.

He said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics had verified data of 3.7 million people from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). The data was collected through census in the first phase. He claimed that the first phase was completed successfully.

Mr Bajwa said the PBS office in Islamabad was yet to receive the data from Gilgit, Skardu and Quetta due to landslides there. He said that despite threats, census teams completed their task in the first phase.

In reply to a question, he said out of eight missing enumerators in Kech district, seven had returned to their homes while one was still missing.

PBS verifies data of 3.7 million people from Nadra in first phase
He said the data would be collected about the people of North and South Waziristan as well as Orakzai tribal agency from the Fata Disaster Management Authority. The FDMA maintains records of temporarily displaced persons from the area.

The chief commissioner expressed the hope that people would support and collaborate with the census staff in this phase as well.

Nadra has blocked 350,000 computerised national identity cards ahead of the first phase. He said the census would cover all people living in the country irrespective of their ethnicity or nationality. Foreign nationals would also be registered. He said Afghans would be counted as foreigners.

He said the survey would cost Rs18.5 billion, of which Rs6bn would be spent on army personnel and a similar amount on the PBS staff. The remaining Rs6.5bn would be spent on providing transportation. The provinces would share the cost of the survey with the federal government, Mr Bajwa said.

He said all enumerators had been told not to use lead pencils while filling out forms. Only prescribed ballpoints would be used.

The census team will comprise two people — a civil enumerator and a military person. Each team has been assigned two blocks. A block has 250 to 300 houses on average. Enumerators carried out house listing in the first three days. From April 28 onwards, the headcount will begin for 10 days. A day will be spent counting homeless people, and another day to return the data collected.

A similar exercise will be carried out for the second bloc from May 11 onwards.

Census teams will fill out Form-2 on the spot. The form carries 25 questions, 12 of which deal with name, sex, age, marital status, religion, mother tongue, nationality, literacy, level of education, employment status, status of CNIC, etc. The next 13 questions deal with ownership of the house, construction details, facilities like internet, use of TV and radio and people living abroad for more than six months, etc.

Source: Dawn