The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has finalised all arrangements to conduct much-awaited 6th population census from March 15, 2017, official sources said on Monday.
“The census will be held in two phases and the first one will kick-off on March 15, 2017,” they told APP. The first phase will be completed in mid April, while the second phase is likely to be initiated from April 24 and will end by mid May. Preliminary results of the national population census will start coming in by June and they will be made public accordingly, the sources informed.
For conducting the census, the PBS has already divided the country’s population into 168,120 blocks, each block consisting of about 200 to 250 households, the sources informed, adding that over 84,000 enumerators would be involved in the nationwide exercise.
The bureau has made all arrangements to conduct the exercise in a transparent manner and has already imparted training to the staff for conducting the exercise.Talking about the security situation, the sources said that Pakistan Army would be providing security for conducting the nationwide exercise, adding that one army personnel for each enumerator would be engaged for ensuring the smooth and secure data collection.
In first phase as per the schedule, the census will being in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP) from Mardan and Peshawar, in Punjab from Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sargodha, in Balochistan from Quetta, Zhob, Sibbi and Makran and in Sindh from Karachi and Hyderabad.
In the federal capital, the population count will be conducted in the first phase however the AJK, Gilgit Baltistan and FATA will be covered in the second phase.
Meanwhile, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the country’s transgender community will be included in the national population census. The Lahore High Court (LHC) had instructed the federal government, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and the Ministry of Interior to include the transgender community in the census.
Pakistan had last conducted its population census in 1998 and according to the law, federal government is subjected to hold census every ten years.