Committee constituted to probe 'undercounting' in Karachi, other cities
Pakistan
Ongoing seventh population census is being conducted in Pakistan on digital basis
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – After concerns raised by some political parties that Karachi’s population was counted incorrectly, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives said that a committee was formed to look into ‘undercounting’ in major cities.
According to a statement issued by the planning ministry, the committee will devise a plan and suggest a way to resolve the issue to assure a transparent and credible census field operation.
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal constituted the committee comprising Secretary Planning Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Chief Census Commissioner Dr Naeem uz Zafar and provincial chief secretaries.
The steps were taken during a meeting to review progress of the ongoing digital census. Reportedly, after completion of 95 percent counting, Karachi’s population was shown to be lower than reported in 2017 census. According to the latest data, city’s population is around 13.9 million.
As per 2017 census, Karachi’s population was 16 million, a figure not agreed by all political parties. The planning minister also directed the Census Monitoring Committee to discuss how to complete the process within the deadline.
He also directed Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) to conduct geo-tagging to count the population of ‘missing’ slums.
Among others, the meeting was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) chief census commissioner, secretary planning, National Database and Registration Authority director and National Telecom Corporation managing director.
The participants were informed about the targets achieved so far and issues of undercounting in big cities and high-rise buildings and slum areas. Chief census commissioner briefed the participants of the committee that the Burea had appointed teams to trace gaps in low coverage areas in order to find out the real issue behind.
The participants were informed that major reason for ‘low coverage’ was undercounting by field staff. He asked the provincial officials to be more vigilant to resolve the issue.
