Jail, fine for falsifying data during population count, warns minister

First phase of population and housing census starts from March 15

ISLAMABAD: The government has warned that those who “wilfully” provide “incorrect” information during the upcoming sixth population and housing census in the country would be penalised.

“A fine of Rs50,000 and six months imprisonment will be handed to those who wilfully misrepresent facts or provide incorrect data [to enumerators],” Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Maryam Aurangzeb said during a press briefing on Sunday.

She was accompanied by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor and Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa.

Aurangzeb said the census would be conducted in two phases, with the first phase starting from March 15 and ending on April 15 and added the second phase would commence on April 25 and culminate on May 25.

“Some Rs18.5 billion has been earmarked for conducting the census in which Rs6 billion has been contributed by the army. Moreover, Rs6.5 billion has been set aside for transportation and Rs6 billion allotted to the civilian budget,” she said.

The minister said in total 118,918 civilian staff has been taking part in the census exercise. “The whole staff consists of government officials serving in various departments.”

Speaking on the occasion, the ISPR director-general said the census would be conducted with the assistance of over 200,000 troops.

“There are approximately 168,000 blocks and every civilian enumerator will be accompanied by a soldier,” he said.

The director-general added that soldiers would go door-to-door with the enumerators, fill in their own forms and once the data is provided, the soldier would immediately verify the information from the NADRA database.

Aurangzeb said: “Dual nationals, who are present in Pakistan at the time of the census, will be counted in the census data.”

Maj-Gen Ghafoor said the army had chalked out a supporting plan for the census under which the military had three tasks: to ensure smooth and transparent census along with maintaining the law and order situation.

To a question, he clarified that 84% of the temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) had returned to their native areas while the rest had already been registered with the authorities concerned.

The army would also make security arrangements for the retrieval of filled forms, he added.

He maintained that with the assistance of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, master trainers in various cities had trained more trainers under them at the division level, so “each soldier is well-trained to do the job”.

Ghafoor said the armed forces had consulted previous census records, particularly the one held in 1998 when the whole census process was completed in 90 days with the help of some 250,000 personnel.

“Despite the fact that the armed forces have been involved in conducting various [security] operations, it has now been decided to deploy over 200,000 army personnel to assist in the census process to be completed within 60 days.”

Responding to another question, the ISPR director-general said troops already present in Balochistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas would continue to remain in the respective areas.

He added if any further requirement arose, the force would be replenished accordingly.

The state minister said: “For the first time Form 2A of the census will count transgender, besides people with disabilities.”

She said provincial results of the census would be published after May 25, adding regular reports would be issued at the provincial, district and national levels, with the summary of demographics as well as visual representation published before the final results are released.

Regarding the awareness campaign about the census process, the minister said the government would undertake a mass communication and awareness campaign at the national level.

“Citizens, who wish to report any discrepancy, are encouraged to call on the helpline: 0800-57574.”

The ISPR director-general urged people to cooperate with the census staff.

The first census in the country was conducted in 1951, the second in 1961, the third in 1972, instead of 1971 due to political turmoil, and the fourth in 1981.

The fifth census, which was due in 1991, was held in March 1998 with the help of the army.

Under the Constitution, the government is bound to conduct population census every 10 years.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2017.