Population census: Services of over 207,000 personnel to be hired

Country to spend Rs14.5b on the exercise, which will begin in March 2016.

ISLAMABAD:

The government has decided to engage over 207,000 military and civilian personnel during the next population census in an effort to cover all census blocks and maintain law and order.

The arrangements for the population census, scheduled to begin in late March next year, were discussed in a meeting presided over by Finance and Statistics Minister Ishaq Dar here on Thursday.

Chief Statistician Asif Bajwa briefed the minister on the processes completed so far by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for holding the census, which had been due since 2008 - a delay of eight years.

The last census was held in 1998 also under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s administration.

In the meeting, it was decided that 207,500 people would be engaged to reach more than 165,000 census blocks. The workforce requirement is 60% higher than the 1998 census as the government has increased the number of blocks.

The total cost of the census is estimated at Rs14.5 billion, of which Rs7.5 billion will be paid to the Pakistan Army for performing duties in one of the largest exercises as workers will go door-to-door to record the number of people living in the country, according to an official of the PBS.



Provinces will bear the expenses and the federal government has already shown the receipt of Rs14.5 billion from the former in the budget for 2015-16.

The census activity would start in the last week of March 2016 and would continue for around three weeks, PBS officials told Dar. The education departments of provinces had been taken on board while setting the schedule keeping in view the timing of school examinations in the respective provinces, they added.

Dar stressed that it must be ensured that educational activities in schools were not disrupted because of the census.

It has already been decided that the 2016 census will be conducted under the supervision and monitoring of civil and armed forces in order to ensure credibility and transparency of data.

The armed forces will be responsible for maintaining law and order during field activity, collection of filled questionnaires and their transportation to Islamabad for a smooth exercise, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Finance after the meeting. Dar told the PBS to reduce the time span for the census and complete it on time in order to enable the government to do better planning for the future. Preliminary results will be available in June 2016.

Dar further said all other activities including preparation of district-wise data and relevant reports should be concluded by December 2017.

He voiced the hope that the civil and military personnel would take utmost care in the collection and processing of data keeping in view the sensitivity of the issue and to ensure transparency.

The census has a profound impact on a host of measures the government takes. The outcome will determine the representation of provinces in the National Assembly where seats are allocated on the basis of population.

The census also serves as a guiding document for determining the share of provinces in federal tax revenues. Under the current National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, provinces get 82% of the divisible pool of taxes on the basis of their population. Decision on the remaining depends on other factors.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2015.

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