ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI) on Friday unanimously decided to postpone the population census and finalize the new date in consultation with provincial governments and armed forces.
In a meeting of CCI held in Islamabad on Friday with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the chair, the issue of population census 2016 was discussed in detail.
The Secretary Pakistan Bereau of Statistics (PBS) informed the meeting that in continuation of decision taken in previous CCI meeting held on February 29, 2016, a series of meetings were held with provincial governments and armed forces.
The PBS secretary said that since transparency of census operation was vital for future planning, about 300,000 troops are required to ensure man to man coverage as well as to lend credibility and security to census operation.
The meeting was informed that due to engagement of armed forces in anti-terrorism operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan’s Shawal area, the required number of troops cannot be spared at this stage.
The option of having phased census was also discussed during the meeting. However, the meeting was informed by PBS that phased census was desirable due to inherent flaws and in any case phased census was not in line with international best practices particularly keeping in view some specific factors related to Pakistan which can raise serious contentions on the credibility of the exercise.
It was, therefore, unanimously decided that census shall be postponed and a new date may be finalised in due course in consultation with provincial governments and Armed forces.
Moreover, the meeting also formed a committee of four Chief Ministers, Minister for Water and Power and Minister for Climate Change to finalize the plan regarding the issue of National Flood Protection.
