PESHAWAR: The house listing process has been completed in 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the exercise was extended for one week in militancy stricken Orakzai Agency.

The relevant officials told Dawn on Friday that the arrangements for the headcount had been finalised and that it would begin in the targeted districts of KP and Fata today (Saturday).

They said thousands of enumerators and personnel of the law-enforcement agencies were taking part in the campaign.

An official said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics had extended the house listing process in the remote tribal agency of Orakzai until April 22.

He said the house listing in lower and central tehsils of Orakzai Agency was launched on Wednesday but it got delayed for two days in the upper tehsil after local residents boycotted it.

Officials say headcount to begin in selected KP districts, Fata today

The official said the tribesmen had demanded the repatriation of all displaced families before the execution of population census but ended the boycott after holding negotiations with the officials of political administration and MNA Dr Ghazi Gulab Jamal on Thursday.

Another official said the house listing was launched in upper tehsil of Orakzai Agency on Friday.

Political agent Khalid Iqbal Wazir visited the upper tehsil on Friday and inaugurated the exercise.

A total of 150 enumerators, 250 levies personnel and 1,000 Frontier Corps men are taking part in the census in Orakzai Agency.

The families had fled their homes in Orakzai Agency’s upper tehsil due to militancy and military operations against militants.

Though the area has been cleared of militants, the people are reluctant to return due to the destruction of their houses and extreme weather conditions.

Orakzai Agency has been included in the first phase of the countrywide census programme, while the remaining six Fata agencies will be covered in the second phase.

Like Orakzai Agency, the house listing in five other tribal agencies including Kurram, Khyber, North Waziristan and South Waziristan will be a bit difficult for enumerators as a large number of houses were demolished in the military operations and the people didn’t return to their native areas.

A relevant official said the census-related staff would mark the vacant and damaged houses in the absence of their owners, while the displaced persons would be counted where they lived temporarily.

The officials said the house listing was almost completed in 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa except few pockets in Abbottabad, Nowshera and Lakki Marwat.

They said the house listing exercise in few areas could not finish due to the size of the census blocks.

The officials said Afghan nationals living outside their notified camps would be included in the headcount process and that the Afghan nationals living outside camps would be counted during the campaign.

They said a separate column for refugees and people from other nationalities had been incorporated in the census form.

The officials said over half a million registered Afghans lived in rural and urban areas of KP, while the number of undocumented ones was not known.

The reports said the house listing drive was finished in remote districts of KP.

Torghar deputy commissioner Pervez Khan said 95 per cent of house listing had been completed in the district.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2017