Army not available for census

LAHORE The Ministry of Defence has refused to extend the services of Army for the sixth population census of the country, saying the exercise requires 0.16 million personnel and the prevailing security situation cannot permit deploying the forces for census. Besides the demand made by Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani for conducting the much-awaited census under the supervision of Army, the Statistics Division had also contacted the ministry for this purpose. But after the refusal, it has asked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza to intervene. Meanwhile, the Statistics Division has finalised the programme for upcoming census under which registration of the houses is scheduled to start in April next year while population census will start after Eid in Sept. The federal govt has already directed the provinces to ban the transfer of Health and Education departments officials while it also barred changing the boundaries of districts, tehsils, union councils and patwar circles. Similarly, the Statistics Division in a letter to the Punjab chief secretary provincial has informed him that the officials of Education and Health departments besides the district administration have been inducted in the census process while a notification about appointing all the DCOs as district census officers; therefore, transfers should be banned in all the departments concerned, including Revenue. The letter also mentions the decision to stop forming new districts and tehsils.