Counting people

Minister for Planning Asad Umar, who set up the National Coordination Centre for Census, which is to be conducted in August this year, has said that this first digitised census in the country will provide accurate data that could be used in the election next year. Asad Umar, along with Chief Statistician Dr Naeemuz Zafar have explained that the modus operandi of the census would be somewhat different to those conducted in the past, with every person counted on the basis of where he or she had lived for the past six months, and without the involvement of CNICs or permanent residential addresses. This is in some ways significant, given delimitations, and the planning of various cities. For example, in Karachi, while many people may hold domiciles which lie in other areas, the fact is that they live in Karachi, which means a census that counts the number of people currently living in Karachi or Lahore, or Faisalabad is immensely significant. A census is vital, not only for delimitations ahead of elections, but also for the allocations of resources to provinces, including finances and other assets required to run the province. Around 115,000 enumerators from various departments have been hired to survey 180,000 housing blocks with each enumerator to count two blocks every 30 days. The enumerators would be using tablets to record the data rather than paper and pencil. The national telecommunications authority, PTA, the Ministry for Information Technology, Suparco and other departments will be involved to ensure there is no manipulation or possibility of hacking the sensitive data.

Census and their accuracy has long been a problem in Pakistan with many disputes occurring over the manner in which they are conducted and whether the data put together is reliable. Politics comes into the picture with attempts made in the past to change figures in order to redefine constituencies in different manners based on the number and location of people who live there. We hope that this digitised census will give us a true picture of people living in the country, where they live, and what they do. Asad Umar has also said a census on the economic situation of people would also be coordinated with the national census. This too is immensely significant. Certainly, we need reliable data on the number of people in the country and where they live. Housing blocks have already been expanded from 168,000 in 2017, when the last census was conducted to at least 180,000 in 2022. This makes the task even more difficult in some ways, but nevertheless extremely important. We hope that the census, a pilot project for which will be run in May, goes ahead smoothly – and we welcome the fact that the census is being conducted within 10 years of the last such exercise, as is laid down within the constitution of Pakistan.