ISLAMABAD - Though census was carried out in most parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in the first phase, legislators belonging to the tribal area have called for carrying out the exercise in conflict zones through Google maps.
Google maps offer satellite imagery, panoramic views of streets and demography, route planning etc.
In the first phase, the federal government failed to carry out the exercise in North and South agencies of FATA due to the law and order situation. It has been decided to rely on the old data of the FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) and Google maps to carry out the exercise in conflict zones.
“It was my proposal to the government that we (Fata residents) would be ready to accept the census through Google maps,” said Parliamentary leader of FATA legislators in National Assembly Shah G Gul Afridi while talking to The Nation. “This could be a nice experience to take the estimate of the population through Google maps,” Afridi said.
Answering a question about the FDMA data, he said that the data may not be fresh but the idea was still acceptable for them.
FATA legislator Sajid Toori said that they were satisfied with the ongoing population census in FATA. “We don’t want to miss this opportunity,” Toori said adding that there was no harm in relying on the FDMA’s data to estimate the population.
Another FATA legislator, Bismillah Khan, lauded the efforts to carry out the census in the country especially in conflict-ridden areas of FATA.
The government is carrying out the census in Orakzai Agency and other areas smoothly. The census in other six agencies of FATA would be carried out in the second phase, starting from April 25.
The next phase of the population census in the remaining 86 districts of the country would start from April 25, which would continue till May 25.
The government has also asked households, who may have left uncounted in some areas in the phase-I, to call on the toll-free number to get themselves registered in the second phase.
In the first phase, enumerators have listed 8 million households in 42,200 blocks of 63 selected districts. Of the total 8 million listed households, two million have already been verified through National Database and Registration Authority.
As per planning, the country was divided into 168,275 blocks of which 42,200 blocks were completed.
Chief Commissioner Census Asif Bajwa had recently shared with media that the census in other agencies of Fata will be conducted under normal routine apart from North and South Waziristan agencies. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics would approach the FDMA for the data of North and South Waziristan agencies.
Lawmakers in both houses of parliament have several times raised the issue of transparency in the ongoing census. A member from FATA Jamaluddin had expressed his reservation over the housing and population census of the internally displaced persons.