ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has finalized all arrangements to conduct much-awaited 6th population census from March 15, 2017, official sources said on Monday.
“The census will be held in two phases starting from March 15, 2017,” they told the state-run news agency in Islamabad.
The first phase would be completed in mid April while the second phase is likely to be initiated from April 24 and would end in mid May.
Preliminary results of the national population census would start arriving in June, which would be made public accordingly, the sources informed.
For conducting the census, the PBS has already divided the country’s population into 168,120 blocks, each block consisting of about 200 to 250 households, the sources said, adding that over 84,000 enumerators would be involved in the nationwide exercise.
The bureau has made all arrangements to conduct the exercise in a transparent manner and has already imparted training to the staff for conducting the exercise.
Talking about the security situation, the sources said that Pakistan Army would be providing security for conducting the nationwide exercise, adding that one army personnel for each enumerator would be engaged for ensuring the smooth and secure data collection.
In first phase as per the schedule, the census will being in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Mardan and Peshawar, in Punjab from Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sargodha, in Balochistan from Quetta, Zhob, Sibbi and Makran and in Sindh from Karachi and Hyderabad.
In the Federal Capital, the population count would be conducted in the first phase, however the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan and Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) would be covered in the second phase.
Meanwhile, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the country’s transgender community will be included in the national population census.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) had instructed the federal government, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and the Ministry of Interior to include the transgender community in the census.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan had last conducted its population census in 1998 and according to the law federal government is subjected to hold census after every 10 years.
