First digital census: Govt extends date for self-enumeration

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has extended the date of self-enumeration for the Population Census 2023, following the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) demand, ARY News reported on Friday.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) spokesperson, the date for self-enumeration for the seventh census has been extended initially by seven days (March 10).

The decision to extend the date for the self-enumeration of the country’s first digital census — which was initially scheduled to end tonight (March 3) at 12am — was withdrawn during the relevant committee’s meeting for the public convenience.

The spokesperson stated that the officials are considering making it longer than a week. The website frequently goes down because so many people are trying to access it.

“Till now, eight million people have self-enumerated themselves. The process of self-enumeration began on February 20,” the spokesperson added.

The development comes days after Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) objected to the time allotted for carrying out the census while calling for extending the time specified for the three phases of self-enumeration, house enumeration and census.

Earlier this week, the federal government accepted the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) demand, seeking an extension in the deadline for registration of families in the digital census through “self-enumeration”.

Sources told ARY News that the government accepted the party’s demand to extend the deadline for self-enumeration by at least 10 days. The meeting also decided that every single flat will be marked instead of the main entrance of multi-storey buildings.

Sources further claimed that PM Shehbaz – while accepting the demands – directed authorities concerned to issue a formal order in this regard.