Dar directs PBS to compile census results by end of July

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ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the government has directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to make the results of Population and Housing Census 2017 available by the end July.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday chaired a briefing session on the recently held Population and Housing Census 2017.

Chief Statistician and Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa briefed the minister about the compiling of census data. He said that all the census-related record and material has been safely retrieved under the supervision of armed forces personnel.

Bajwa assured the finance minister that the provisional census results would be made available as per the timeline given—July 2017.

He said that the sorting and stacking of data have been completed.

Dar called upon the PBS officials to compile the results within the given time line as the data would prove highly beneficial for better economic planning and development.

The minister said it was heartening to note that international independent observers, who visited different places and interacted with people during the process, had termed population census exercise satisfying. Further, the whole process was conducted in accordance with the given timelines.

He was also appreciative of the fact that barring a few incidents, the process remained peaceful. He said the credit for smooth conduct of the population and housing census goes to the PBS team, the armed forces personnel, the provincial governments and security agencies throughout the country.

The overwhelming participation and support by the general public and their interest in the whole process was highly encouraging. The minister said that the last census was conducted in 1998 and it was after a gap of almost two decades that the sixth census is being conducted.

Chief Statistician Bajwa said that the field operation of the sixth population census concluded on 24 May 2017. During the process, 151 districts of all the four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were covered.

The census was conducted in two phases and during the process, 63 districts were covered in the first phase, while 88 districts were covered in the second phase. The first phase started on 15 March and ended on April 13, while the second phase of the census exercise was initiated on April 25 which concluded on 24 May.

Asif Bajwa added that services of 119,000 enumerators and supervisory staff were utilised in collecting the data from about 168,540 census blocks throughout the country.

In addition to civilian field staff, 200,000 army personnel were also engaged as enumerators to provide security to the census teams.

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