First-ever digital census begins tomorrow

PBS spokesperson says next election will be held on basis of new data

ISLAMABAD:

The next general elections would be held in constituencies based on the new digital census, which would begin across the country on Wednesday (tomorrow), the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) spokesperson said on Monday.

Addressing a news conference, Sarwar Gondal said that a digital portal was launched on Feb 20, where the people could submit their data, adding that so far, 4.3 million people had registered themselves.

“The self-enumeration phase started from Feb 20 and the field operation of the census will start across the country from March 1 (tomorrow),” Gondal told reporters. “This process will be completed by April 1 and the data will be released by April 30.”

The digital census is being carried out by the PBS. It has the support of the National Technology Council (NTC), National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), provincial governments as well as the armed forces.

Gondal said that 121,000 field enumerators had been trained and deployed for field operation, adding that each enumerator would be accompanied by a police officer and supported by the armed forces.

“For the census, 495 Census Support Centres have been set up across the country, while 126,000 electronic devices will be used in the process. NADRA will provide assistance in case of malfunctions in the software or the electronic devices,” the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the work on the census started some time ago. In this regard, he added, the government had formed a committee under the Planning Commission deputy chairman for formulating the procedure.

“The 7th census is the first-ever digital one not only in Pakistan but also in South Asia. The data will be authentic as per international standards and will be used for constituency delimitation in next general elections as well as for public policy planning.”

He said that providing the census staffing, data location, and security were the responsibility of provinces, adding: “We have the support of all the stakeholders and service providers as well as the NTC.”

Speaking about the funding for the census process, Gondal said that the total expenditures had been estimated at Rs34 billion.

“The government released Rs10 billion, while the case of Rs24 billion is in the ECC. So there will be no problem in funding,” he added.

The work started with the approval from all the provinces as well as the Council of Common Interests (CCI). The participants of the CCI had no objection to the methodology of the census process, Gondal told reporters.

(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)