ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The process of 7th Population and Housing Census 2022, the first-ever Digital Census of Pakistan, has been initiated, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar told the Senate on Friday.
In a written reply submitted in the House, the minister told that a Pilot Census will be conducted from May 15, 2022 to June 15, 2022 and complete Field Operation (Face to Face interviews) will be carried out from August 1, 2022 to August 31, 2022 tentatively.
The House was told that a total of Rs 16.884 billion was spent on the National Census held in the year 2017
To the question seeking details about the number of formal complaints received against the results of the 2017 Census, Asad Umar told that firstly, the Chief Minister Sindh made some observations/recommendations on March 10, 2017 for smooth field operations of the 2017 Census.
Later after census activity observations were made on 2017 Census results by the Sindh Chief Minister Sindh in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting held on November 13, 2017 and therein it was decided to conduct third party validation of 1% blocks. In the CCI meeting of November 24, 2017 it was enhanced to 5% of the blocks.
Furthermore, the Sindh Chief Minister opposed the approval of the final results of Census-2017 in the 45th meeting of CCI held on April 12, 2021, however on the recommendation of the Cabinet Committee the results were approved by CCI with the majority votes and directed to start the process for the next census at the earliest while adopting best international practices and technology usage.
While using its Constitutional Right under Article 154 (7), the Sindh Chief Minister on May 29, 2021 submitted a reference to the Parliament on the above mentioned CCI’s decision for its placement before the Joint Session and accordingly during the Joint Session held on November 17, 2021 the reference was considered wherein the CCI’s decision was approved with majority votes.
