Population Census yet to conclude despite three extensions

ISLAMABAD: The Population Census exercise could not be concluded despite three extensions, while the fourth extension of the exercise has been under consideration, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The digital census exercise will be suspended for five days from April 21 to 25 owing to Eid holidays, a spokesperson said. The Census Monitoring Committee will decide about further extension in the census exercise, according to the spokesperson.

Earlier, the digital census exercise, which was decided to be concluded by April 04 was given three extensions, first to April 10, then 15 and after it to April 20 (today).

A spokesperson for the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics today said that the population count of the country has reached to 23,53,88,890 in the digital census exercise.

Muhammad Sarwar Gondal has said that in Karachi over 16.5 mln people and in Lahore 11.5 mln people have been counted so far.

In the digital census exercise 11,63,49,000 population has been counted in Punjab, while 5,28,57,803 in Sindh, PBS spokesperson said.

The population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been counted at 3,92,43,320 as per the census figures, while in Balochistan it has been 1,92,55,648, spokesperson said.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics had earlier extended fieldwork of the first-ever digital census till April 20.

The PBS spokesperson said that Pakistan’s total population has reached 234 million (23.4 crores), increasing by 8.06 percent as compared to 2017.

The spokesperson noted that the country’s population swelled by 10.71 million as compared to the statistics of 2017.

He said that 100 percent census work was completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir, 99 percent in Punjab, 98 percent in Sindh, 90 percent in Islamabad and 82 percent in Balochistan.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Sindh government as well as various parties have objected over ‘undercount’ of population under the digital census exercise in Karachi.