ISLAMABAD Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday chaired a 7th Census Monitoring Committee meeting to review progress over the country’s first Digital Census and decided to address the concerns of Sindh province.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief Secretary Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Chairman NADRA, Chairman Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), and other representatives.

The meeting reviewed the progress in the country’s first digital census. Chief Statistician Dr Naeem Zafar briefed the officials on the activities. It was decided, the Census Monitoring Committee meeting will be held every week for better coordination and to resolve all the problems immediately.

While presiding over the meeting, the federal minister directed the chief PBS to meet the chief minister of Sindh along with his technical team on Wednesday (today) to address the concerns of Sindh. The Sindh chief minister appreciated the efforts of the planning minister.

Iqbal further said that the government will take all the provinces onboard. In this regard, the concerns of Sindh province will be removed immediately. He said that the government believes in taking all decisions by consensus.

“The digital census will have an impact on the future of Pakistan and I cannot afford any kind of controversy and will not compromise on its transparency, “remarked the minister.

The minister further added that all resources are being provided by the federal government to complete the process as it was a national agenda and general elections will be based on this census.

Some miscreants want to sabotage this census, but it is our responsibility to focus on this exercise by ensuring its transparency and accuracy, said the minister, adding that the federal government is responsible to make the whole process successful by taking onboard all the stakeholders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023