The Council of Common Interests (CCI) may be informed of the impossibility to carry out the Population Census within the time line of December 2016, as decided by it, sources said.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Wednesday, the Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa said as carrying out census may not be possible by the end of current calendar year and provinces may be taken into confidence through the forum of CCI. Sources said that a meeting of the CCI had decided in March 2015 that Population Census would be completed not later than end of current calendar year.
Chief Census Commissioner stated that negotiations are going on with the Army on the issue of sparing required personnel of Armed Forces to conduct the survey. "Army would review the situation by the end of calendar year and let us know whether or not it would be able to make available required people for Census to ensure its credibility" he said, adding that if necessary, provinces would also be informed through the forum of CCI.
"We have also informed the Supreme Court on the issue," he added. Asif Bajwa said as everything was ready on their part and required funds were also provided to the PBS for carrying out Census.
An official on condition of anonymity stated that the PBS was required to go back to the CCI if Census was not possible by the set date line on whatever grounds. He said that the PBS held meetings with Fata Secretariat with political agents and heads of the administrative departments as part of the Census. All the agencies in the Fata have been declared Census districts and all the political agents will be the Agency Census Officers of their respective agency.
They further said that the PBS has also deployed its census staff at census district levels and necessary funds were provided to the agency administration for the purchase of stationery items. Secretariat level and agency level census co-ordination committees were being notified for smooth implementation of this national task. Sources in the PBS stated that for complete coverage and effective field supervision, the country has been delaminated in four tiers which include census district, census charge, census circle and census block.
Punjab province was divided for census in 165 districts, 11266 census circles and 86633 census blocks, followed by the Sindh province in 145 census districts, 4930 census circles and 38835 census blocks, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 80 census district, 2310 census circles and 21070 census blocks and Balochistan province was divided in 36 census districts, 727 census circles and 9930 census blocks.
Islamabad will have one census district, 107 census circles and 1281 census blocks and Gilgit-Baltistan 10 census districts, 141 census circles and 1244 census blocks. Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was divided for planned census in March 2016 into 10 census districts, 288 census circles and 3799 census blocks, source added.