Secretary planning, Development and Special initiatives (PD & SI), Syed Zafar Ali Shah visited Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to personally monitor the progress and updates on 7th Population and Housing Census. Chief Census Commissioner, Dr. Naeem uz Zafar, Member SSRM, Mr Sarwar Gondal, Member C&S, Mr Ayazuddin and other senior officers of PBS welcomed him.
Chief Statistician/Chief Census commissioner, Dr Naeem us Zafar, expressed his gratitude to Secretary PD & SI for his visit and apprised him that now PBS along with collaborating partners is about to achieve the target of conducting first ever digital Census.
Member SSRM, Muhammad Sarwar Gondal gave brief presentation regarding progress of Field Operation and informed him about main issues that were faced during enumeration especially in big cities due to non-response and non-completion of work in high rise buildings.
He informed that PBS has already identified issues and communicated to concerned for appropriate action. Execution of Census Field exercise is responsibility of provincial Governments and DCs/ACs are responsible for assurance of complete coverage in their respective areas of responsibilities.
Secretary PD & SI, Syed Zafar Ali Shah showed his satisfaction over the progress and appreciated PBS staff for successful execution of census activities. He was of view that though PBS is at the end of the activity but at this time teams need to be more vigilant for coverage of remaining areas and leftover structures/home for assurance of complete coverage.
He also emphasized that all abnormal trends in data all over Pakistan may be cross checked with SUPARCO imagery for verification and NADRA may also be involved for forensic audit.
He highlighted that Census is a gigantic task, therefore, issues may arise, but PBS should make efforts to undergo more in-depth analysis to redress and audit the issues highlighted by various stakeholders and efforts should be made to improve the process to ensure transparency and wider acceptability.
He also visited the census control center and call center and appreciated the working of PBS for conduct of the first ever digital census.
