The Council of Common Interests (CCI) will today (Friday) discuss holding the 6th population and housing census, which is far from ready for being kick started on the scheduled launch date, September 12. An official said the Pakistan Army had expressed reluctance to take part in the census due to the deteriorating law and order and engagement of security forces in the war on terror.
The refusal from the army and operational constraints like a lack of trained manpower are likely to delay the census which until March. The census project is lingering for the last three years. Another cause for the delay in census process is the involvement of 146,000 teachers across the country in the voter verification process started by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) a few weeks ago. Furthermore, hiring of staff for the census remains incomplete.
Over two million army officials took part in the 1998 census that helped in 100 percent coverage of people residing in the far-flung areas of the country. But the grey areas would be difficult to cover this time around due to the absence of army personnel, the sources said. In the current law and order scenario, conducting a census without the help of army personnel on ground was a Herculean task for the government, they said.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has the authority to take the final decision to launch the population census, which was to utilise 0.225 million recruits for completing the exercise within 16 days, an official source said.
