Next general elections to be held on basis of digital census: PBS

ISLAMABAD: The next general elections due in 2023 will be held on the delimitation of the constituencies to be made on the basis of digital census being conducted across the country.

The digital census for which spadework is almost complete is likely be completed by the end of 2022 and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics will provide the final data to the government by December next year, PBS Director Attiqur Rehman, informed Bol.

“We are working as per the defined roadmap, in fact we are ahead of the set schedule and will complete the whole exercise of the house count and census well in time,” Rehman said.

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He further stated that PBS would provide complete data to the government and it would then be up to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to initiate the exercise of delimitation of constituencies in light of the digital census.

Former secretary ECP Kanwar Dilshad said that delimitation of constituencies would be done if the census would be completed as per schedule in December 2022, adding that as it would be the first ever digital census and will involve latest techniques and technology so its reliability would be much better as compared to the census held in the past.

Dilshad said that delimitation of the constituencies would be made in light of the accurate picture of the population and its concentration in various parts of the country and would likely bring a lot of changes due to increase in the number of national and provincial assemblies’ seats in various parts of the country.

He said that the spadework for the upcoming digital census and house count, which would be seventh in the series, was almost complete and he saw no hurdle in holding the next general elections on the basis of the delimitation of the constituencies.

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“Holding census after 10 years is a constitutional obligation of the government but unfortunately, this practice is not strictly followed and the census held in 2017 was conducted after a gap of 19 years,” Dilshad said adding that the exercise was conducted in a lousy fashion and became controversial with political parties especially those from Karachi outrightly rejecting it.

Besides preparations for the digital census, the PBS in collaboration with provincial governments would be conducting surveys to have an accurate picture of the agriculture census, labour workforce and its concentration in different parts of the country, status of joblessness in the country and other related issues directly affecting the national economy.

The World Bank is also extending support to the PBS in conducting the digital census with the aim to make the overall statistical data more reliable. In this connection, a series of meetings between the World Bank team and PBS officials have already been held.

Responding to queries, Rehman informed that future economic targets of the country would be set based on the census and a comprehensive strategy would be evolved for the overall economic well-being of the people.

The National Finance Commission Award would also be announced on the basis of the digital census wherein the funds from the federal divisible pool for provinces would be revised in light of the change in demography.

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In the seventh NFC Award, Punjab secured revenue share in the federal divisible pool to the tune of 51.74 per cent, Sindh 24.55 per cent, Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa 14.62 per cent while Balochistan 9.09 per cent.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was keen to see the timely completion of the digital census as the government wants to hold the upcoming elections on the basis of delimitation of the constituencies made under the fresh census.

With the conduct of digital census and thereafter delimitation of the constituencies, one of the longstanding demands of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (Pakistan), an ally of the PTI government, would also be met.

The population of Pakistan is 207.68 million according to the 2017 census which was conducted after a gap of 19 years. Pakistan has conducted six population censuses in 1951, 1961, 1972, 1981, 1998, and 2017.