Completion of seventh census delayed by almost four months: sources

The seventh census of Pakistan will not be completed in due time and likely to face a delay of up to four months due to devastating floods in the country, sources said. The field work for enumeration of the populace will now be completed next year in March instead of November 15 this year. The seventh census in Pakistan was scheduled to be held from October 15 to November 15 this year. But according to the sources, the devastating flood situation in the country is causing impediments in timely completion of the process. According to a report, the field work for the census which was earlier scheduled to be completed this year by November 15 will now be completed between February 1 to March 4, 2023. Meanwhile, it has also been declared impossible to train 0.12 million field staff at the tehsil levels till December 2022. Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has taken strong exception to the delay and said that it would not be tolerated. The new census is a precursor for new delimitations in the country before next general elections to be held in 2023. Earlier in the beginning of year, then-federal minister for planning and special initiatives Asad Umar said that Pakistan Army would not have a direct role in the seventh census. “Latest technology will be used in collecting the information which will make the process fast, accurate and easy,” Umar said. He pointed out that a population census should be held after every 10 years but Pakistan had seen delays of up to two decades which lead to controversies and accusations. The former government had allocated Rs25 billion for the enumeration of population which was expected to be completed by December 2022.
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