Daily Times

It has been decided in high level meeting held under the Chairmanship of the Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, with senior management of PBS to close the census field operation of 7th Population and Housing Census by 16th May, 2023. Now, process of verification and validate to ensure complete coverage will be completed within 15 days. It is great pleasure to share that field operation of the 1st ever Digital Population and Housing Census has been completed on 15th May, 2023. The census field operation was commenced on 1st March, 2023 and continued without any interruption.

It is pertinent to mention that all the DCs/ACs being Census District Officers will provide duly filled and signed completion certificate on the prescribed format. The payment to the field staff for census work will be made after provision of completion certificate by respective DC/AC as per decision of Census Monitoring Committee.

It is pertinent to mention that headcounts data of armed forces restricted areas and collective residences will be incorporated in the population counts of respective block. The citizen complaints regarding non coverage will be entertained and redressed at CSC as well as PBS Call Centers (0800-57574) till 30th May, 2023 subject to provision of NIC number and requisite information. Simultaneously, the verification for quality assurance of the data will continue by using modernized technique called Computer Assisted Telephonic Interview (CATI) and the respected citizens are urged to extend cooperation with our team to verify their data through randomly generated calls through CATI.

The committee of renowned demographers was constituted pursuant to the decision of Census Monitoring Committee (CMC) to analyze the census data for pointing out departures from the normal trends. NADRA and SUPARCO will assist technically through forensic audit to Demographers Committee for rectification of under and over reporting. The Committee of Demographers will finalize its recommendations for consideration of CMC after analyzing census data by applying demographic techniques, keeping in view forensic reports as well as ground realities. The population counts being reported in the media are provisional and will change owing to data synchronization, addition of restricted areas and collective residence aggregated counts, leftover structures and change on the basis of recommendations of demographers’ committee approved by CMC.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics express profound gratitude for citizen of Pakistan who actively participated in the census to accomplish their moral and legal obligations. The digital census will provide opportunity for the government to develop evidence based policy planning for ensuring our rights and better service delivery at our doorstep that will lead to prosperous nation.