Islamabad, Pakistan: 6^th population and housing census will start on March 15, 2017 in all over Pakistan and up to 200,000 Pakistan army troops will be deployed to support conduct the census.

National census was supposed to be held in 2008 but now being held with a delay of 19 years as last census was held in 1998. Interestingly, last census was held when Mian Nawaz Sharif was Prime Minister of Pakistan and now again census is being held under his orders. According to the constitution of Pakistan, census must be held after every 10 years. Article 51 of constitution 1973 clearly directs government to hold census after every 10 years.

Addressing a joint press conference here in PID on Sunday, Director General Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb explained how the census would be held all over the country.
District governments have also been engaged in the process.
A mass level campaign would be launched to aware people about their responsibilities towards making this census successful.
State Minister explained that Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif wished to provide maximum social facilities to every person of country and census is very important to know how many people we are and what resources are needed by the country.

“Communication and nation level campaign will be launched, helplines have been established to facilitate masses. This census is being conducted after 19 years. PMLN had promised census in 2013 election menifesto. Census will redefine representation and service provision”,said State Minister for Information Maryam Aurangzeb

It may be mentioned that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa approved plan to support conduct of 6th Population & Housing Census in last week of January 2017.

It may be mentioned that an amount of Rs7.5 billion has already been released and disbursed to provinces to make arrangements for census which is scheduled to be held in two phases. Total cost of census would 18.5 billion rupees.

The country has been divided into 168,120 census blocks and one enumerator would be responsible for counting two blocks, each block consisting of about 200 houses. Over 84,000 enumerators would be involved for counting population. Pakistan Army will provide one army personnel for each enumerator for ensuring the smooth and secure data collection.

Census exercise would conclude on May 25, 2017 and the summary results of the population would be made public after 60 days of census.

The first phase of census would be completed in mid April while the second phase is likely to be initiated from April 24 and would end on 25 May.

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.

For the first time in the history of Pakistan, transgender community will be included in the national population census. under instruction of Lahore High Court (LHC).

Calendar of activities for 6th population and housing census of Pakistan