By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The possibility of conducting the first ever digitized Housing and Population Census 2022 seems to be delayed at least for a few months, as so far, the government has been unable to procure 126,000 computer tablets for recording the data.
Top officials of the government confirmed to IP that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) required 126,000 computer tablets to collect data from all over the country for holding the upcoming House Listing and Population Census 2022 which was initially scheduled to be completed by December 2022. As per plan the house listing and population census should have kick-started from August 2022, followed by the post-enumeration survey to be conducted in November and the results were expected to be made public by December 2022.
The pilot exercise in the selected 32 districts was already done smoothly without any major hiccups with representation from all provinces. However, the overall population census exercise got delayed. “We are thinking to conduct housing and population census in December 2022 or January 2023 provided the government gives the required 126,000 computer tablets on time so that the PBS could train its staff,” said one top official.
The next Population Census will be conducted on computer tablets whereby 600,000 enumerators belonging to education, health, and local government departments will be trained to fill the questionnaire of Population Census digitally in detail.
The letter of credit for procuring 126,000 computer tablets was issued but it is not yet known how much time it will take to procure these tablets. If it’s further delayed, it would be very difficult to hold the population census on time.
The number of census blocks will be increased from 168,000 to 180,000 for covering the whole country.
The Population Census is planned to be conducted on a de-jour basis. The Army’s help will be sought as 250,000 personnel of the armed forces will be deployed all over Pakistan with the mandate to ensure only foolproof security on the eve of the upcoming Population Census.
The next population census will be conducted on a “de-jour” basis under which everyone will be counted on where they had lived in the last six months and would be living in the next six months, with a few exceptions.
The government appointed four provincial Census Commissioners but there is a laidback approach at the federal level due to which the possibility of holding the next population census is in jeopardy.
The sources said that if the census would be accomplished in December 2022 or January 2023, even then the delimitation could be possibly done by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in case the incumbent PDM-led regime completed its tenure till August 2023.
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