ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The census of Afghans living in different parts of the country, which started on February 23, is progressing smoothly.

A senior official of the Population Census Organization, a department of the Statistics Division, told APP here on Saturday that prior to the census, a pre-mapping exercise has been carried out to identify locations and concentration of Afghans living outside the refugee camps.

He said on the basis of the exercise, field staff were appointed and trained. The official said that the census material sent to the provincial census offices had also been distributed among the field staff for enumeration.

"Census of Afghans living in Pakistan is progressing smoothly and without any problem," he said. The official said that enumeration had started in NWFP, Sindh, Punjab and Islamabad. The census would continue till March 4, he said. -APP