Pakistan’s first-ever digital census to start tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first ever digital population and housing census will begin across the country from Wednesday.

Briefing newsmen about the census in Islamabad, Spokesperson of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Muhammad Sarwar Gondal said a web portal with address self.pbs.gov.pk has already been launched for this purpose.

He said the census teams, instead of recording complete details, will only collect UTN numbers, which would be provided to those citizens who will save their data digitally.

The Spokesperson said 121,000 field enumerators have been deployed for the field operation of census.

He said this process will be completed by 1st April and the data will be released by 30th April which will then be approved by the Council of Common Interests.

Police and army personnel will be deployed for security of the census teams, keeping in view the sensitivity of the area.

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Responding to a question regarding concerns being raised on the process from Sindh, in particular Karachi, Balochistan and a few other quarters, Gondal shared that prior to the census extensive and intensive consultations were held at levels, especially with provincial stakeholders to explain the complete digital process.

The apprehensions being raised are due to a lack of understanding of what the census process entails. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics is once again engaging with the stakeholders to explain the facts and clear all misunderstandings to ensure that the census is being held in a transparent manner, counting each and everyone living in Pakistan, at the location they are living in.

It is for this reason that a digitized methodology was chosen for this census. Further explaining the census objective, Mr Gondal shared that “as per the General Statistics Reorganization Act 2011 and UN Conventions, census is a national duty to inform policymaking, future planning and development for the progress of the country.

Participation in the census is mandatory and providing reliable information is a civic duty for everyone living in Pakistan.”

Gondal, emphasized that spreading fake news or misinformation for any purpose is a criminal offence, or politicising it or using it for agenda setting is dishonesty to the country and to the people. Census is our national duty and together we have to make this first-ever digital census a global success.

He said that “we urge each and everyone to actively participate in the census either through self-enumeration at https://self.pbs.gov.pk or with the help of enumerators who will be visiting door to door from March 1, 2023.”

Staying true to the principles of honesty and integrity, fulfilling its main mandate and the decision of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics is conducting the first-ever digital census with the objective of providing credible, transparent and timely data for decision-making.

The digitization of the census guarantees transparency, accountability and efficiency.