MQM-P demands to extend time for household census

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has demanded the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) extend time for household census as Pakistan’s first-ever digital census will kick off on March 1 (Wednesday), ARY News reported.

The MQM-P has penned down a letter to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) chairman, expressing concerns over the steps taken for first-ever digital census.

MQM-P demanded to extend the time for household census, saying that allocating only three days in this regard was not enough. “It will not be possible to count houses in a densely populated city like Karachi within three days”, the letter stated.

The letter further stated that at least 10 days should be set aside for household censuses, and that the number of days should be increased for the three phases of national household and digital censuses.

In the letter, the party stated that in order to enumerate the population completely, the whole process should be done with transparency.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan’s first-ever digital population and housing census will kick off across the country from Wednesday [March 1], ARY News reported on Monday.

Briefing the journalists, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) spokesperson Muhammad Sarwar Gondal noted that a portal has already been launched by the bureau so that people can submit their data themselves and don’t need to face the botheration of giving data to census teams visiting door-to-door.

He said more than 4 million people have already been registered at the portal and a UTN number will be issued to them after their data is saved and they can give that number to the census team.

The spokesperson further said that 121,000 field enumerators have been deployed for the field operation of census, which will begin on Wednesday.  “The process will be completed by April 1 and the data will be released by April 30 which will then be approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI),” he added.