Karachi: Amid widespread concerns that the country’s population will not be properly counted, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has extended by six more days the ongoing nationwide digital census drive.
As per the PBS decision, the enumeration of the population and houses in the country will now be completed by April 10.
This is the second extension in the duration of the ongoing enumeration drive. The census, which started on March 1 this year, was originally scheduled to be completed by April 1.
The Chief Census Commissioner decided to extend again the duration of enumeration activity based on the recommendations of the provincial census commissioners.
Sindh did not accept the results of the last census held in the country in 2017 as the concerned provincial government challenged them at the top constitutional forum of the Council of Common Interests (CCI). Amid such reservations of the Sindh government, the CCI decided to hold the fresh census in 2023 earlier than the stipulated period of 10 years.
The concerned provincial authorities believed that the actual population of Sindh, especially of Karachi, is much higher than that counted in the last census.
Census in 2017 showed Sindh having 47.85 million population while Karachi has over 16 million population.
A multi-party conference (MPC) convened by the ruling Pakistan People’s Party last month resolved not to accept the results of the ongoing 7th digital census in the country if the reservations of the concerned political quarters of Sindh about the enumeration drive were not duly removed by the federal authorities.
The MPC demanded that the duration of the census drive should be extended to let the enumerators properly count the population of the province.
It demanded that all the defects in the census drive, duly pointed out by the concerned political parties in Sindh, should be removed by the federal authorities to ensure accurate counting of the population of the province.
The MPC demanded that illegal immigrants settled in Sindh should be separately counted during the census, as they shouldn’t be mixed with the natives of the province during the enumeration exercise.
