CCI decides to postpone census

ISLAMABAD, March 25: Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at PM office on Friday.
Issue of Census 2016 was discussed in detail. The meeting has unanimously decided that census shall be postponed and the new date will be finalised in consultation with provincial governments and armed forces.
Secretary Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) informed the meeting that in continuation of decision taken in previous CCI meeting held on 29th February 2016 series of meetings were held with provincial governments and armed forces. 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 operations of shawal and Zarb-e-Azb 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 excercise. 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. -DNA