ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Census Commissioner Mohammad Saeed has said that the next population and housing census will be held in 2008, 10 years after the 1998 census.
The census will cover entire Pakistan, including tribal areas (Fata and Pata), Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Northern Areas.
He said that reliable statistics were essential for realistic planning, better management and effective administration.
“All people living in the above areas will be enumerated except for the diplomatic personnel and their families,” he said.
He said that enumerators would visit every household and collect information from heads of the families or responsible members of households.
The people involved in the census operation had to be well-trained and trusted, enabling the Population Census Organisation to produce reliable and accurate data.
According to him, consultations had been held with experts for drafting questionnaires and outlining methodologies for the census through informal meetings and workshops at provincial and regional level.
He said that draft questionnaires had been sent to various stakeholders and their suggestions had been sought.
He said that sensitisation workshops had been held at Islamabad and four provincial headquarters attended by a number of officials of provincial and district government departments.
Mr Saeed said that maps had been prepared for all rural and urban areas to ensure complete coverage and avoid omissions and duplications. He said that out of 5,316 census circles, maps of 5,314 cities and towns had been updated. Maps of rural areas were being updated by the revenue department staff.
Muhammad Saeed said that boundaries of the census areas or tiers would be co-extensive with administrative set-up of districts, tehsils, talukas, Qanungo Halqas, union councils, patwar circles and Mauzas and Dehs.
The delimitation of Census Districts had also been finalised and the delimitation work would be completed by January 2008.
The entire territory of Pakistan, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas, would be delimited on a four-tier system of 434 Census Districts, 2,954 Census Charges, 20,437 Census Circles and 126,645 Census Blocks.
He added that the enumeration operations would require about 150,000 enumerators and supervisors, adding that because the organization could not maintain such a large field force on a regular basis, services of school teachers and other local government employees would be hired.
The first draft of manual of instructions for filling up the proposed questionnaires had been prepared, he said.
He said that an effective publicity campaign would be launched through electronic and print media to educate people and motivate the field staff.
As part of the publicity campaign, a news letter and a quarterly Urdu magazine had been issued, projecting the progress of census activities. Other publicity material (posters, news briefs and advertisements) would be prepared during the census period. —APP
