SIALKOT, Feb 14: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Pakistan government on Monday jointly conducted the pilot census procedures for Afghans in the Sialkot district.
Talking to reporters here on Monday, chief Census Commissioner of Pakistan Najamul Hassan said there were more than 15,477 Afghanis residing in 1,200 different urban and rural clusters of Sialkot district.
He said that the main objective of the census was to collect accurate figures of Afghanis living in Sialkot district. The chief census commissioner said that about 2,000 enumerators would launch a full-fledged census of Afghanis across Pakistan from Feb 23 to March 4, 2005.
The pilot census was also carried out in Karachi (Sindh), in Pishin district (Balochistan) and in the camps of Shamshatoo and Mera Khachori, in the rural areas of Khazana, Naguman and Chargano Kaley and in urban areas of Peshawar (NWFP).
Later, the chief census commissioner, joint census commission Punjab Iqbal Hussain, UNHCR representative Nazar Muhammad, DCO Syed Tahir Raza Naqvi and journalists visited some Afghan clusters in Sialkot and its outskirts.
Speaking on the occasion, UNHCR representative Nazar Muhammad said that "We have to prepare the teams in each province to deal with their particular conditions - some will be in urban areas and some in camps. This will provide the staff to acquaint themselves with procedures before the full-fledged census across the country."
