ISLAMABAD: Governing Council of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) yesterday reviewed the preparations for the forthcoming 6th Population and Housing Census in the country that would be conducted after 17 years.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired the 9th meeting of the Governing Council of PBS. The chair at the outset welcomed the newly-appointed PBS members and mentioned that they had joined the organisation at very crucial time, just a couple of months before the 6th Population & Housing Census -2016. They will have to shoulder the responsibility of making the census successful, he said.

PBS chief statistician gave a detailed presentation on the preparations for the forthcoming 6th Population and Housing Census in the country. He informed the house that as per decision of the governing council PBS has adjusted the target dates for preparation of census reports by December 2017. He said that the PBS had initiated all preparations and held meetings with the provincial authorities to brief them about their responsibility in making census successful and transparent.

The country’s highest decisions-making forum, Council of Common Interests (CCI), last year decided to conduct fresh census in March 2016 after a gap of 17 years, as last time it was conducted in 1998. The first census in Pakistan was conducted in 1951, second in 1961, and third in 1972. Fourth census was held in March 1981 and fifth, which was due in 1991, was conducted in March 1998. However, no census was conducted in the past 17 years.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics would require a workforce of 205,397 personnel including enumerators and supervisors, besides over 165,000 military troops to ensure foolproof security arrangements. The military personnel will be assigned to fill separate form in order to ensure counter-check. Total cost of the census is estimated at Rs14.5 billion, of which Rs 6.9b will be allocated for PBS and Rs7.5b for security and facilitation.

According to the details provided by the PBS, the house listing operation would be completed in three days by end March 2016. The census enumerators will be given a 15-day period to fill forms in their respective total 165,000 blocks in all over the country, having 200 to 250 housing units.

Then enumerators will be given one day in April 2016 for collecting details about homeless or gypsies. Another 15 days will be given for the retrieval of census documents.

The house listing operation would be completed during March 2016, census enumeration period by March-April 2016; enumeration of homeless population by April-2016 and retrieval of census documents would be completed from April to May 2016.

The finance minister emphasised the importance of the census data and mentioned that census was being conducted after a gap of 17 years. It was the prime responsibility of the PBS to conduct credible census, he added. He directed that utmost care should be taken to complete this task in a transparent manner so that the data is credible. Such data, he said, can then form the basis for future planning.

It was agreed that qualified and highly reputed statisticians would be co-opted as members of the technical committee to provide their professional input on conduct of census. The finance minister directed that frequent meetings of the technical committee be held leading up to the census and suggestions of experts be brought to the governing council for consideration.

The finance minister along with all the participants, on the occasion, also bade farewell to the outgoing Secretary Statistics Division Mr Israr Ahmad Malik who is retiring on 4th January and prayed for his good health.