The seventh population and housing census in Pakistan will start on March 1 according to a notification made on Tuesday by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Digitally conducted throughout, the census will last one month and end on April 1.
The Council of Common Interest’s (CCI) 49th meeting, held on January 13, approved the census, according to the PBS, which reports to the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives.
Prior to the decision, the PBS had started the census-related activities and developed a plan to teach census-takers in three stages: in Islamabad for master trainers, in divisions for trainers, and in census districts for enumerators.
On December 15 and December 23, respectively, the department successfully carried out the training of master trainers and the training of trainers. From January 7 to January 21 of this year, three batches of enumerators were trained, and the local government was very important in this process.
The department revealed that the field operation for the census was originally scheduled to take place from February 1 to March 4, 2023.
The date to begin the field operations for the digital census was announced by the ministry in a notification. “However, due to some unavoidable circumstances and keeping in view the ground realities, it has been decided in the fifth progress review meeting of the census monitoring committee (CMC), constituted by the Council of Common Interest (CCI) [which includes representation from all the provinces and stakeholders] held on January 17, 2023,” the notification read.
