Population Census Organisation (PCO) has released the schedule of "6th National Population Census' on its website which would be held without apparent support of armed forces. The official website of PCO displays that the homework for carrying out of the census was completed by January 31, 2011 (yesterday).
House listing survey will continue from March to April 2011. Later, in August 2011, the population census would be initiated. According to website, the procurement of logistics has been completed for the house listing operation in January 2011. It further reveals that the house listing and population census would be initiated in 158 districts of Punjab, 129 district of Sindh, 177 district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 34 districts of Balochistan, 7 districts of FATA, 7 districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, 10 districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad Capital Territory, simultaneously.
The PCO did not mention how many districts would be excluded from 6th National Population Census specifically those that have been facing considerable security challenges like FATA and most parts of Balochistan. Sources in the Ministry of Defence, however, confirmed that the federal government did not send any request for deploying armed personnel for the security of its civilian staff so that they could carry out their duties.
When contacted, an official of the PCO said that it would be difficult to hold census in those areas where military operation is currently going on against terrorists but they are studying the possible ways and means of collecting pertinent information. Launching of 6th population and housing census 2011 was approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in November 2010. The CCI was informed that around 180,000 enumerators, usually schoolteachers would be involved in the census process and the GHQ would be consulted.
According to schedule, the house count would start from April 4 to April 14, 2011. Afterwards, retrieval of summary sheets and house listing material will take place from April 22 till May 16, 2011. It will take five weeks to complete the whole process. The population census enumerates from September 12 till September 27, 2011. The preliminary reports from summary sheets will be compiled in two months. By the end of December the preliminary figure of census will be public.
The PCO began its preparatory work subsequent to approval of CCI to carry out the census operation. It has completed its planning exercise, like preparation of rural and urban areas maps, delimitation of Census areas, finalised census questionnaire and proposed a training schedule for the census field staff to carry out census operation in the country. The website further reads that the estimated population of Pakistan is 175,036,711 by January 31, 2011. The government would conduct this sixth census after 12 years. Previously, the fifth census was conducted in 1998, which was due in 1991.
Comments
Comments are closed.