KARACHI: Along with the civil administration officials and army troops, around 16,000 policemen will be deployed as a dedicated force for “security and assistance” of the census exercise in the metropolis, scheduled to begin on March 15, it emerged on Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting, which was chaired by Sindh IG A.D. Khowaja, recently held to review security strategy for the census 2017.

According to the police spokesman, the IG had issued directives to senior police officers regarding security arrangements for the census.

A senior officer, who was assigned to coordinate with other officials and design a security plan, said the details of the strategy had yet to be finalised but it was estimated that more than 15,000-strong unit would be deployed as dedicated force with the staff of civil administration and Pakistan army’s soldiers.

“It has been learnt that some 8,000 teams will carry out census in the first phase,” DIG (headquarters) Munir Ahmed Sheikh told Dawn.

“With each team, our two armed policemen will be deployed. All these 16,000 policemen will remain part of the census team till completion of the exercise,” he said.

Their boarding and lodging, he said, would be with the census teams for a month and they would not be used for regular policing activities till the census was over. He said the policemen would be armed with their regular weapons used by the Sindh police for security and assistance during the census.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) announcement, 11 divisions of the four provinces as well as the federal capital will be covered in the first phase of the much-awaited population and housing census in the country.

The divisions to be covered in the first phase are: Mardan and Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sargodha (Punjab), Quetta, Zhob, Sibi and Makran (Balochistan) and Karachi and Hyderabad (Sindh).

In the second phase, census in other divisions of the four provinces as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas will be conducted.

With only five weeks left in the beginning of census exercise, the Sindh police are close to finalising a security plan in coordination with the Pakistan army and the local government, said the DIG headquarters, who has been assigned to coordinate with the army and civil administration.

“Under the security plan at our end, some 16,000 policemen from rapid response force, Sindh reserve police and quick response force will be used for the census duties,” said DIG Sheikh. “A unit of quick response force will lead the other two units in these duties. Deployment of personnel from these units doesn’t mean that the area police will be exempted from the census duties.”

Local police stations will coordinate with the census teams during the exercise in their areas for other necessary arrangements as part of the detailed plan, he said.

The first phase of census will begin on March 15 and continue till April 15 and the second will continue from April 25 to May 25.

The army has already approved the deployment of 200,000 troops for duties during the sixth population and housing census.

For the first phase, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has promised to provide 45,000 personnel. Another 45,000 personnel of the civil administration will also be involved in the first phase, in addition to the staff of the PBS.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2017