The federal government has decided to conduct the seventh national census in December 2022, which will also be the country’s first census that will be carried out digitally.
This decision was taken during a recent meeting of the federal cabinet that was held in Islamabad with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair.
According to details, the seventh national census will be conducted using 100,000 computer tablets while 600,000 employees of education, health, and local bodies departments will perform the census.
The federal government has also decided to deploy 250,000 security personnel who will accompany the employees performing census duties all over the country to ensure their foolproof security.
It has also decided to seek assistance from National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and other relevant institutions to conduct the census.
It has also been estimated that carrying out the digital census will require more than Rs. 25 billion because of the procurement of the 100,000 computer tablets and the subsequent training required by the staff to operate them effectively.
The number of census blocks has also been increased to 180,000 from the previous 168,000 for covering the entire country easily.
Previously, every census in the country was carried out manually. The staff conducting the census used to jot down all the information on the forms using pen/pencil.
However, this time paper forms and pen/pencil will be replaced by computer tablets which will contain the digital questionnaire form consisting of up to 26 questions.
The seventh census will be conducted on a “de-jour” basis under which everyone will be counted where they had lived in the last six months and would be living in the next six months with a few exceptions such as illnesses, staying abroad for Hajj or Umrah, or employment purposes for one month period.
Besides, the federal cabinet rejected the proposal of conducting the seventh census on a “de-facto” basis under which a countrywide curfew would have been imposed to conduct the census.
It rejected the proposal because it would have required more than 1.1 million security personnel and incurred a cost higher than the current estimate of Rs. 25 billion.
Since the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) normally takes 6 months to conduct delimitation exercise after the census, the next General Election (GE) is expected in July or August 2023.
If the next General Election is announced to be held in the first half of 2023, then it would be organized on the basis of the last census that was held manually in 2017.
