PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said the census staff has been warned of dire consequences in KP’s eight districts, making it difficult to carry out the 7th population and housing census process in these districts.
The districts include four tribal districts – Khyber, Orakzai, North and South Waziristan – and four settled districts including Tank, Lakki Marwat, Bannu and Abbottabad. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics officials said that the threats were issued while the staff was busy in census exercise called ‘Rural Area Framework’. According to the PBS, Pakistan army had provided clearance for the exercise in tribal districts.
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The statistics agency has asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to ensure full security of the census staff otherwise; these districts will be missing out from the seventh census. According to the Bureau of Statistics, Rural Area Framework has recently been successfully completed in other parts of the country. According to the PBS officials, the provincial government has been approached in this regard and they have been requested to provide security and protection to the staff.
In order to complete the work, Deputy Commissioners and other law enforcement agencies in these districts have been requested for assurance to complete the process keeping in view the national interest. The KP government sources also informed that the PBS has requested for full-fledged security for the census staff. The sources said that all departments have been informed about this important issue.
The digital census will be conducted for the first time next year and all the data will immediately be collected in the central database. Chief Statistician Dr Naeem Al-Zafar has said that the next general elections will be held on the bases of new census. Zafar said that by December 2022, the complete statistics of the census will be provided to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Zafar informed that the National Census Coordination Center will be set up for the census while the security forces will not participate but will provide security. The 7th population census process will start in July 2022.