PESHAWAR: The population census began in 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one Fata agency on Wednesday amid tight security for enumerators.

Backed by the army and police, thousands of enumerators began the three-day house listing in KP and Fata.

In the first phase, the house listing and population census will be carried out in 13 of the total of 25 districts in KP.

The Pakistan Army, Frontier Constabulary, police, Frontier Corps and levies force personnel have been deployed in KP and Fata to provide security to the census staff members.

The enumerators visited houses in the provincial capital to allot numbers.

A relevant official said Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Battagram and Torghar districts will be covered in the first phase.

“We are allotting numbers to houses, shops and offices,” said an enumerator in Channia area of Mansehra district, who was escorted by the army and police personnel. KP has been divided in 21,997 blocks with one enumerator covering two blocks.

The house listing will be followed by the head count. The census material has been dispatched to all districts in the province. The much-delayed process also began in Orakzai Agency of Fata. The remaining six tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions (FRs) will be covered in the second phase.

Fata has been divided in 3,793 blocks.

When contacted, Orakzai Agency assistant political agent Ashfaq Ahmad said enumerators visited houses in lower and central tehsil of the agency.

He said a total of 672 enumerators went to the field in Orakzai comprising three tehsils.

The officials said census might not be carried out in upper tehsil of Orakzai Agency due to the displacement of population.

They said the area had been cleared of militants but displaced people had not returned.

Like Orakzai, thousands of tribal people, who fled their homes in other areas of Fata due to militancy, have settled in Peshawar and other parts of the country.

According to officials, over 13,000 families from Orakzai have refused to go back to their homes.

The civilians had migrated to Hangu, Kohat, Peshawar and Punjab due to militancy and military operations.

“The house listing may not be conducted in upper tehsil because the people have yet to return to their homes,” said an official.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra formally launched the national housing and population census in Peshawar, said an official statement.

The governor himself marked the housing census number at the gate of Governor’s House, which had been allotted the digit One 001. Chief census commissioner of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics Asif Bajwa, provincial census commissioner Mumtaz Ali Khan and other relevant officials were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2017