PESHAWAR: The first phase of ongoing 6th National Population and Housings Census 2017 was successfully completed in 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Orakzai Agency amid tight security arrangements as the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics is determined to share its findings with the nation within two months.
A senior official of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Peshawar told APP on Monday that the first phase of the ongoing national census in 13 KP districts and lone tribal agency of Orakzai Agency has been completed successfully on April 15 (Saturday) as no untoward incident was reported from any part of the province.
“All the forms filed by enumerators have been submitted to the PBS headquarters in Islamabad for the compilation of data to be shared provisionally with nation within two months,” the official said.
The census operation has been completed in the KP districts, including Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan, Hangu, Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Batagram and Torghar, and Orakzai Agency of FATA.
The enumerators along with security personnel enlisted names of houses, shops, persons, ages, married, unmarried persons, education, gender, etc, in two different forms before its submission to the PBS for data compilation besides others necessary works.
More than, 15,000 staff, including enumerators, have participated in census process in KP and Orakzai Agency, and that the staff had been trained from February 7 to February 28, 2017.
Four high powered committees, including the one formed under the chairmanship of the KP chief secretary, had monitored and supervised the census operation to ensure accuracy and authenticity as per the true national spirit.
The second phase of the sixth national census would commence from April 25 to May 24 in 12 KP districts, including Bannu, Kohat, Karak, Tank, Malakand, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Chitral, Swat, Kohistan, Bunner/Daggar, Shangla and six tribal agencies namely Mohmand Agency, Khyber Agency, Kurram Agency, Bajaur Agency, South Wazir Agency, and North Waziristan Agency.
All the census related items, including vehicles, utensils/registration farms, had been dispatched to the divisional and district officers respectively for the second phase, the official added.
The administrative divisions and districts of KP and FATA were divided into urban and rural areas, comprising 2,000 to 2,500 houses to ensure correct counting, and the KP has been divided into 22,000 blocks for a smooth, transparent and peaceful holding of the census in the province and FATA.
“A total of 180 complaints have been registered in the first phase of the national census addressed by the field and operational staff of PBS,” the official said, adding a control room has been set up in the PBS Office, Peshawar to be contacted on phone number 9212633 for registration of complaints if any.
“In the first phase, most of the complaints received from people were related to non-registration,” the official said and added all the complaints were addressed.
During an investigation, it was found that people who had registered complaints were, in fact, unaware that their number for registration would come in the second phase.
To a question, the official has highly lauded the cooperation of people in the first phase of census operation, saying no refusal case was reported.
“No untoward incident has been reported from any part of the province and Orakzai Agency,” the official said, adding six teams of international observers had also monitored the census operation in KP and FATA and expressed complete satisfaction about its credibility and transparency.
He also appreciated the cooperation of media for creating awareness on regular basis among people about different stages, number, and places of the census.
A reliable census is important for a country and government to adequately plan growth, deliver services to people and solve the country’s problems on basis of relevant collected data.
The official expressed the hope that masses would continue to cooperate with census staff during the second phase.
