Pakistan Census 2017: What is new in 2017 population census?

Pakistan is all gearing up for Census 2017. Pakistan conducted its last census back in 1998.

The sixth national population census in Pakistan will be held from March 15 to May 25 2017.

According to the constitution of Pakistan, census must be held after every 10 years. Article 51 of constitution 1973 clearly directs government to hold census after every 10 years. However, last census was held 19 years ago.

Highlights of Census 2017

Third Sex: For the first time in history of Pakistan, transgender / transsexual people will be counted separately in Census 2017.

The survey form will have three choices for gender: 1 for men, 2 for women, 3 for those who declare themselves transsexuals.

Nine Languages: Census 2017 survey form will list only nine out of Pakistan’s estimated 70 languages.

Two Nationalities: Census 2017 asks the respondents to select from two nationalities: Pakistani or foreign.

There are apprehensions that Afghans could be counted as local and skew demography in favor of ethnic Pashtuns, whose political parties would benefit as a result.

On the other hand, the estimated six million Pakistanis working abroad will not be counted. No information will be collected on internal migration — necessary to assess the political weight of a province where many people have moved for economic reasons.

Four Faiths: Census 2017 will concentrate on four major faiths in Pakistan. Citizens can declare themselves Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Ahmadi. Rest of the citizens like the Sikhs, Parsis or Baha’i, can opt for “members of scheduled castes”.

Number of Toilets: The households will be asked about number of toilets in their premises. Not sure what the government is going to achieve with this.

Cost of Census 2017: Total cost of census is estimated to be 18.5 billion rupees.

Procedure of Census 2017:

• The country has been divided into 168,120 census blocks and one enumerator would be responsible for counting two blocks, each block consisting of about 200 houses.
• Over 84,000 enumerators would be involved for counting population.
• Pakistan Army will provide one army personnel for each enumerator for ensuring the smooth and secure data collection.
• Census exercise would conclude on May 25, 2017 and the summary results of the population would be made public after 60 days of census.
• The first phase of census would be completed in mid April while the second phase is likely to be initiated from April 24 and would end on 25 May.
• In first phase as per the schedule, the census will being in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Mardan and Peshawar, in Punjab from Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sargodha, in Balochistan from Quetta, Zhob, Sibbi and Makran and in Sindh from Karachi and Hyderabad.
• In the Federal Capital, the population count would be conducted in the first phase, however the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan and Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) would be covered in the second phase.

Stay tuned for more updates about Pakistan Census 2017.

Census 2017 Forum (Specimen)

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