- PBS spokesman says persons with disability, Form-2A already included in census coverage
The federal government is all set to inform the Supreme Court today that any interruption in the population and housing census process may not only lead to delay in entire course of action but also it could result in an additional cost of around six billion rupees to the national kitty.
The apex court is all set to listen to the viewpoint of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in another petition filed to seek immediate intervention to stop the census so as the census should also include the registration of differently-abled (disabled) persons in the form.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) also directed the PBS to add a column to register the differently-abled persons on Tuesday. PBS official spokesman Habibullah Khan told Pakistan Today that the Statistic Division had already included coverage of the persons with disability and Form-2A had the column to register the persons with disabilities.
He said that the plan had been submitted with the Council of Common Interest (CCI) which had approved the plan that aimed at initially registering the head count and in the follow up phase the coverage of differently-abled people could be made. However, adding a column to the forms of population census would be difficult at this stage, he said.
“As we would have to reprint 52.59 million forms while the enumerators who had been already trained for the entire process would have to again undergo new training which would lead to delay of the entire process,” he added. He said that the actual plan of census was consisted of 19 days which had to be reduced to 14 days due to the unavailability of the armed forces personnel due to the already planned military exercises and security operations.
He said that the statistics bureau had requested for the provision of the army personnel for 19 days. However, the army expressed its availability for 14 days. He said that the actual plan of census was of two months. But later the entire process was reduced to 14 days. Now while the census has already been started, enumerators have been imparted training and all the arrangements have been put in place, any intervention at this time would lead to delaying the process.
“We will submit our limitations and submission to the court requesting that the addition of a new column at this stage would result in not only delay of the process but also would have financial impact of five to six billion rupees extra,” he added.
When asked why a thorough review of coverage of transgender and differently-abled people was made a part of the process, Habibullah said that follow-up form 2-A covers the question of disability and if the question of disability was added separately it would increase the actual 25 question to 46.
“Which would not only prolong the entire census process by two months but also it would result in additional financial impact.” When asked what would the course of action vis-à-vis high court verdict by PBS, he said if SC orders relief to PBS then it would also inform the Lahore High Court about the relief provided by the apex court.
