The Senate Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation on Monday expressed its reservations over certain aspects of the mechanism adopted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for conducting the country’s 6th population census from March 15.
The committee held detailed discussions on discrepancies in the census forms issued by the PBS for the upcoming population.
Senator Muhammad Saleh Shah suggested that a proper mechanism should be developed for counting Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) who were scattered throughout the country.
The committee members were of the view that since most of the TDPs were not settled in their native areas and were living in different parts of the country, the PBS should develop a proper form and distribute it all across the country to count TDPs.
The committee members said they were not opposed to the census as it was imperative for documenting population for various purposes, but a mechanism should be developed to make it a fair and transparent exercise.
The chairman of the committee said that the reservations of the members of the committee would be forwarded to the house.
Representatives of NADRA informed the committee that about 326,000 TDPs were accounted for in the NADRA database.
The meeting was also attended by Senators Saleem Mandviwala, Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, Muhamamd Mohsin Khan Leghari, Kamil Ali Agha, Muhamamd Saleh Shah, Mir Kabir Ahmed Muhammad Shahi, Sardar Muhammad Azam Khan Musakhel, and Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar.
