Govt has margin to complete census till October or November, says Ahsan
Pakistan
Government extends deadline of census completion by 15 days
KARACHI (Dunya News) – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said that government had the margin to complete the census till October or November.
In a collective press conference with Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi Chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, the PML-N leader said that census department got help from SPARKO and it was the first in history of Pakistan that the country was having a digital census.
The federal minister said that the counting process was slow for urban areas and some of the distant areas were under counting process. He added that some areas experienced unusual increase in their population.
He said that government had decided to extend the deadline of completion of census by 15 more days.
Mr Iqbal said that media campaign would be initiated regarding the census and that counting was necessary for allocation of resources.
“Government is trying to complete the consensus accurately, so that everyone can accept it,” said the federal minister.
He disclosed that government shared progress report with all political parties expressing reservation regarding census.
For timely completion of census, the government had requested cooperation from all political parties, said Mr Iqbal while being hopeful that government would be able to complete the census on time.
Mr Rehman said the JI would not tolerate any bargaining on census adding that everyone must be counted. “Population of the places that were not taken into account should be counted,” he added.
If the government did not agree, we would stage a protest, he warned.
He went on to say that we should not proceed with the 2017 census as the baseline adding that the JI did not agree with that census. “A committee, including all stakeholders, should be formed,” he added.
