Feb 29 , 2016
News
National census to ensure social and economic uplift of the country: PBS
APPISLAMABAD: Effective policy formulation, planning and decision making ought to be based on extensive and authentic data and information and upcoming census would help the government to ensure overall social and economic prosperity.
The decision for new census is a good one as it figures about population and other sectors, which are crucial for social and economic development, an official source in Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Sunday.
The official said that the census is vital to have exact and correct population figure as only assumptions had been made about the population growth after the 1998 census.
He said the credit goes to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government for making arrangements to hold census as the last one was also conducted in its tenure.
This shows PML-N’s sincerity towards the country’s overall development and progress, he added.
He said the diagnosis of illness is vital for treatment and census would identify the exact population size and ultimately help in resolve the issues. No development work is possible without planning, which is done keeping in view the population size, he added.
The Council of Common Interests (CCI) will discuss matters relating to 6th Census, besides other issues in its meeting scheduled to be held today (Monday).
The first census in Pakistan was conducted in 1951, the second in 1961 and the third in 1972 instead of 1971. The fourth one was held in March 1981 and the fifth, which was due in 1991 was conducted in March 1998.
The census is considered as the most basic element for the judicious distribution of the national resources, representation in Parliament, electoral processes, tax collection and other civic issues including growing urbanisation and evaluation of resources for infrastructure development.
According to the PBS, there are two approaches of census enumeration. The first approach is called ‘De-jure’ in which persons are counted at their usual place of residence while the other approach is called ‘De-fecto’ in which persons are counted where they are found on the census data.
In 1998 census, both the approaches were applied simultaneously during enumeration but the data was tabulated and published on de-jure basis for comparability of data over time.
The census (Population and Housing) is a federal subject as listed at Sl NO 38 of Federal Legislation list, Part-1, Fourth Schedule, Constitution of Pakistan.
According to PBS website, the seats in the National Assembly are allocated to each province, FATA and federal territory on the basis of the population in accordance with the last preceding census officially published under Article-51 (3) of the Constitution.
Further, distribution of funds between the federation and the provinces are made through National Finance Commission (NFC). Article-160 (2) speaks about the formation of the National Finance Commission, which also uses census figures.
The quota for recruitment to federal posts is also worked out on the basis of population ratios as given by the census.
First five censuses were undertaken with the legal cover of Census Ordinance, 1959 amended from time to time. The sixth population and housing census, as per PBS website will be conducted under the legal cover of General Statistics (Re-organisation) Act, 2011.
Successive governments did fail to hold a population census over the past 17 years. This exercise is mandatory to determine the population ratio for the purpose of Article 51(5) of the Constitution, which deals with the allocation of seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies shared in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk