ISLAMABAD: Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal, on Wednesday, directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and provincial governments to ensure effective coordination for the timely completion of the 7th Digital Population & Housing Census 2022.

Chairing the fourth Meeting of Census Monitoring Committee (CMC), held to review progress on the first-ever digital census, the minister said PBS would share information so the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is able to complete its homework before the start of the delimitation exercise.

PBS will officially hand over digital census information to the ECP on April 30, 2023.

He revealed that the exercise would cost around Rs34 billion and directed PBS to share details of the procurement carried out for the census.

Mr Iqbal also asked the provincial governments to ban the transfer of officials who have been deputed for census till the completion of the census. It is noted that officials from the education department and others were attached to PBS for the Census.

During the meeting, the PBS chief statistician shared the overall progress on census activities and said that with the support of all relevant stakeholders, the bureau had completed all major tasks and was now prepared for the full rollout of the census.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2022