Secretary Planning Syed Zafar Ali Shah Friday inaugurated the software for the 7th Population and Housing Census 2022, as the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), ramps up preparation for the first-ever Digital Population and Housing Census.
During his visit to PBS, the secretary was briefed about data dissemination dashboards especially, price information management system (PIMS). The listing and enumeration applications of the 7th Population and Housing Census 2022 were also displayed.
While addressing the PBS staff, Shah emphasized that good leadership, efficient team, and vigilance at the operating level can be beneficial for an organization’s development.
Earlier, Chief Statistician Dr. Naeem uz Zafar welcomed the secretary on behalf of PBS staff. He informed him that the data collection exercise for the pilot census has been started by PBS field staff for testing the tools, mechanism, and field operations. Through this exercise, PBS will be able to point out and rectify all minor and major issues regarding software and field execution plans before undergoing full rollout.
Member (RM/SS) Sarwar Gondal in his presentation on the census, informed that with the approval of the results of the 6th census by the Council of Common Interest (CCI), it was advised to conduct next census immediately by using latest tools and technologies and following world’s best practices. It was also recommended that for wider acceptability of census results, all the stakeholders must be part of the census process from planning to finalization and dissemination of results through an effective communication strategy.
A census monitoring committee comprising important provincial functionaries, researchers, and demographers was constituted to monitor all activities of the population census. Geo-tagging, data collection and listing software, and standardized concepts of field force through extensive training and real-time monitoring are the innovations recommended by the census monitoring committee for reliability, acceptability, and reducing the time between field operation and results announcements.
Member National Accounts Syed Ejaz Ali Shah Wasti gave an overview of the system of National Accounts, prices, macro-economic statistics, public sector development projects (PSDP), and compilation of National Accounts. He also discussed National Price Monitoring Committee, its composition, and its functions.
Shah appreciated the efforts of the leadership and supporting officers of PBS and showed keen interest in both fields. He said that both activities are crucial for policymaking and planning. He showed satisfaction over the preparations of PBS for the upcoming census.
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Everyone practically has a mobile phone in Pakistan and with it, comes the ability to track where people are living. In addition, there are SIM cards registered under different ID cards that are in turn, stored in the NADRA database. The NADRA database in itself is sufficient to determine the number of people in the country, their ages, etc. But if everyone isn’t registered with NADRA, people do have mobile phones. Using data alone, instead of the primitive methodology of knocking doors would be sufficient to determine the population in Pakistan. Foreign, international institutions do it better. The World Bank determined that the population of Sindh was 61 million but our government said it was 47 million. 14 million people in Karachi, about half the population of the city, are living in slums, considered temporary housing, so they weren’t included. But they do consume water and electricity for free. They also contribute to crime and burden the city by depleting it’s resources. They indirectly, hamper the overall growth of our economy, since Karachi is our economic engine. Excluding them would only make sense if they were given alternate housing in other less populated, barren cities of Pakistan. We have an entire ministry for housing. When was the last time anyone heard of any low income housing projects in backward cities of Pakistan to prevent rural to urban migration that is the cause of our energy and economic woes? The situation in our second largest city, Lahore is much worse than Karachi even though we’re not allowed to act as though the place is a part of a third world country. We have to pretend it’s part of Western Europe. But the population implosion in that city isn’t caused by the birth rate. The land maybe more fertile than Sindh but not the families. It’s rural-urban migration. If you argue that Karachi has industries and people move to seek work, how many industrial estates does Lahore have? They move to work in people’s homes and switch jobs every month. It’s not seeking work, it’s seeking a local equivalent of Ibiza in a concrete jungle. There are better ways to seek recreation. We need reverse migration, urban to rural, the housing ministry to become active, development projects other than housing and investments in rural areas, including in agriculture. Not more slums in our cities.