Federal Minister for Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal has directed the provincial governments to complete the field verification/coverage of 7th Population and Housing Census till 15th May, 2023 in areas where population growth is not in line with normal demographic trends and close the field operation in all areas exhibiting natural trends.
He issued the directives while chairing a follow up meeting with provincial chief secretaries held here on Sunday in pursuance of the 12th meeting of the Census Monitoring Committee and meeting with Demographers and Political parties, to discuss the nomenclature for completion of fieldwork of the 7th Population and Housing Census by May 15, 2023.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal emphasized that Prime Minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has taken strict notice on the repeated extensions of field enumeration activities of the 7th Population and Housing Census, therefore, targeted verification and enumeration operations should be carried out in areas with abnormal Population Growth, where gaps have already been highlighted using the digital systems architected by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics for the first-ever digital census.
He stressed that special efforts should be made in urban areas of Punjab, Sindh and KP and ICT to counter issues of under coverage and low coverage. A uniform data-driven policy must be adopted to conclude the field enumeration in all provinces. Strict monitoring of fieldwork and daily sharing of progress with PBS headquarters for onward submission to Minister PD & SI, must be adopted to fill the gaps and successfully concluding this exercise.
The Minister Planning and Development further shared that along with under-enumeration, the digital system has also identified over-counting and cases where census exercise has been manipulated or tampered which has resulted in abnormal trends. He strongly directed concerned teams to address such cases strictly to avoid such incidences in future.
He once again stressed on the completion of the exercise on 15th May, 2023 for timely handing over data to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
