Pakistan first digital census to begin from 1st March

Pakistan First Digital Census: The first ever digital population and housing census of Pakistan begins across the country from Wednesday.

According to the details, this was stated by the Spokesperson Pakistan Bureau of Statistics Muhammad Sarwar Gondal while briefing newsmen about the census in Islamabad on Monday.

On the occasion, Spokesperson Pakistan Bureau of Statistics Muhammad Sarwar Gondal said a portal has already been launched by the Bureau so that people can submit their data themselves and don’t need to face the botheration of giving data to census teams visiting door-to-door. He said more than 4 million people have already been registered at the portal and a UTN number will be issued to them after their data is saved and they can give that number to the census team which will save their own time and also of the census team.                

Muhammad Sarwar Gondal further stated that 121000 field enumerators have been deployed for the field operation of census which is beginning on Wednesday. He said this process will be completed by 1st April and the data will be released by 30th of April which will then be approved by the Council of Common Interests. He added that this will be the evidence based authentic data as per international standards which will be used for constituency delimitation in next general elections as well as for public policy planning.       

Also read: Hajj 2023: Online biometric to be mandatory for pilgrims

“This is the 7th census in the country first ever digital census not only of Pakistan but also of south Asia,” the spokesperson said, adding that the census teams will be monitored by geo mapping and geo tagging data of SUPARCO and administration officials of respective province, division, district and tehsil where census teams are carrying out enumeration, will be given access to the dashboard of that specific area.             

Elucidating this, he said Chief Secretaries of provinces will have access across the province, similarly Commissioners will have access to Divisions, Deputy Commissioners to districts and Assistant Commissioners to tehsils. He said to avoid any hacking or failure of online system we have separated the process from internet and have converted it into our own intra-net server. He said we have already done a security audit of the dashboards.

However, to ensure smooth running of census field operation there will also be alternate manual system if any problem occurs in online system in any area. He said security arrangements have also been made for the census staff and police and army personnel will be deployed keeping in view the sensitivity of the area. Special SOPs have been devised for enumeration in flood affected areas of the country where many people are not yet settled into their homes, he added.