ISLAMABAD -  The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday admitted that the recently-conducted population census might not have shown complete details of the number of transgender and disabled persons in the country.

The PBS officials said that the measure to separately count disabled persons was taken after the Supreme Court decision to this effect as was done in case of the transgender population.

The PBS included the form in the 6th Population and Housing Census 2017 on the directive of the apex court, the official said, while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Statistics, which met under the chair of Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani.

The officials said that there was a possibility that the number of transgender and disabled persons had not been shown in complete detail.

The PBS’s member Census and Surveys Habibullah Khattak said that Pakistan’s annual growth rate increased by 2.4 per cent according to the latest census.

Total annual growth rate had been around 3.06 per cent every year according to 1981 census, he added.

Sharing details of provinces population increase, Khattak said that Punjab’s population had recorded annual growth of 2.41 per cent, Sindh 3.37 per cent, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 2.89 per cent, Balochistan 4.91 per cent, and the Fata recorded growth of 2.89 per cent.

According to the 6th population census, total population of the country was recorded at 207.77 million in 2017 as compared to 132.35 million in 1998, when the 5th census was conducted.

The PBS officials said that they were working with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for delimitation of national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies.

The PBS had provided the provisional results of the census, comparison of census blocks scheme 2011 and 2017, showing increase, decrease, merged, split census blocks, area list of 2017 census, urban area block maps along with description forms at Pakistan level to the ECP.

The federal secretary, Ministry of Statistics, Rukhsana Yasmeen briefed the standing committee regarding the working, subjects, scope and future plans of the ministry.

The chairman standing committee upheld that preparation and maintenance of statistics should be considered a priority in national interest.

It was reiterated by the standing committee that the ministry must ensure timely and accurate calculation of statistics.

It was also agreed that the statistical figures were very essential to determine the quality in every walk of life, and then subsequent planning, and supply and demand of the available resources for the population of a country.

Therefore, it was recommended that steps might be taken to ensure transparent and accurate collection of statistical data from time-to-time, and then conduction of census every five to 10 years.

The efforts made by the PBS in collecting and updating the data on a monthly basis were also appreciated by the members of the standing committee.

The committee chairman said that the Statistics Division was an important department and the whole economy of the country was based on the findings of this department.

He directed the PBS high-ranking officials to share the findings of their surveys with the media and for this purpose, it should hold regular media briefings to make public aware of such results.

The meeting was attended by the Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal, Romina Khurshid Alam, Lal Chand Malhi, Aqib Ullah Khan, SA Iqbal Qadri, MNA and senior officers from the Ministry of Statistics and the PBS.