Census to be held in 2011

Exact number of inhabitants will be ascertained in early 2011, exercise being conducted after 13 years.


Zia Khan November 09, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will hold a national census in early 2011 to ascertain the exact number of its inhabitants, a high-powered constitutional body decided on Monday. The exercise is being undertaken after a period of 13 years.

The Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved a plan to hold the sixth population and housing census, an initiative that was due in 2008 but was shelved by the authorities because of the troubling law and order situation in the country. It is, however, not clear whether the current law and order situation in militancy and insurgency-hit northwest and southwest of Pakistan would be supportive to hold a countrywide door-to-door campaign.

The house listing exercise, the CCI decided, would be held from March to April while the population count would preferably begin in the months of August and September 2011 in consultation with the military to ensure the availability of their personnel. It when

When the country’s last census was held in 1998 the population at that time stood at close to 140 million. According to unofficial estimates, the current population is close to 180 million now.

The CCI met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the chair to undertake several national issues including a plan to reform taxation system and control unbridled prices of foodstuff especially sugar.

Sugar cartel

The CCI, as a constitutional body to resolve inter-provincial disputes, also decided to float all available stocks of sugar into the market with official agencies in a bid to curtail unbridled prices. Rate of sweetener has risen to more than Rs100 a kilogramme in the open market, going up from less than Rs80 two months ago, endangering the government’s credibility and suffocating consumers’ purchasing powers. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) will flood the market with 0.3 million tonnes of stocks it has got at Rs56 a kilogramme.

Rehabilitation strategy

The CCI unanimously agreed upon the national strategy of rehabilitation and reconstruction phases for the areas devastated by this year’s floods.

Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that the government would seek assistance from the Pakistan Development Forum.

The officials would ask the PDF members to assist Pakistan on the basis of a damage needs assessment conducted by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank after the floods.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2010.

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