First-ever digital census begins today

Islamabad

Ghulam abbaS

With the estimated expenditure of around Rs 34 billion, the country’s first ever digital population and housing census begins across the country from Wednesday. For holding the census, around 121000 field enumerators have been deployed across the country.

While addressing a press conference here, Member Support Services and Spokesperson of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Muhammad Sarwar Gondal said the census starting from March 1, 2023 will be completed by 1st April and the data will be released by 30th of April after approval from Council of Common Interests.

According to him, the process has already been started in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

A portal has already been launched by the Bureau so that people can submit their data themselves and don’t need to face the botheration of giving data to census teams visiting door-to-door.

He said more than 4 million people have already been registered at the portal and a UTN number will be issued to them after their data is saved and they can give that number to the census team which will save their own time and also of the census team.

The Spokesperson said 121000 field enumerators have been deployed for the field operation of the census which is beginning on Wednesday.

He said this process will be completed by 1st April and the data will be released by 30th of April which will then be approved by the Council of Common Interests.

He added that this will be the evidence based authentic data as per international standards which will be used for constituency delimitation in next general elections as well as for public policy planning.

He said this is the 7th census in the country and the first ever digital census not only of Pakistan but also of south Asia.

The spokesperson said the census teams will be monitored by geo-mapping and geo-tagging data of SUPARCO and administration officials of respective province, division, district and tehsil where census teams are carrying out enumeration, will be given access to the dashboard of that specific area. Elucidating this, he said Chief Secretaries of provinces will have access across the province, similarly Commissioners will have access to Divisions, Deputy Commissioners to districts and Assistant Commissioners to tehsils.

The spokesperson said to avoid any hacking or failure of the online system we have separated the process from the internet and have converted it into our own internet server. He said we have already done a security audit of the dashboards.

However, to ensure smooth running of census field operation there will also be an alternate manual system if any problem occurs in the online system in any area.

The spokesperson said security arrangements have also been made for the census staff and police and army personnel will be deployed keeping in view the sensitivity of the area. He said special SOPs have been devised for enumeration in flood affected areas of the country where many people are not yet settled into their homes. In reply to a query he said as with any first-time technology initiative, there are some minor issues that are being reported, which have been communicated to NADRA, who is taking care of the technology solutions behind the census.

China will never allow external forces to interfere in China’s internal affairs. We urge the US stop going down the wrong path on the Taiwan question and stop using salami slicing tactics to confuse the public and make nonsense. “If the US insists on going its own way, it will lead to serious consequences, and it will come at real costs to the US,” she warned.

White House Gives Us Agencies 30 Days To Enforce Tiktok Ban

WASHINGTON ReuteRS again engaging with the stakeholders to explain the facts and clear all misunderstandings to ensure that the census is being held in a transparent manner, counting each and everyone living in Pakistan, at the location they are living in. It is for this reason that a digitized methodology was chosen for this census.

The White House on Monday gave government agencies in the United States 30 days to ensure they do not have Chinese-owned app TikTok on federal devices and systems. In a bid to keep US data safe, all federal agencies must eliminate TikTok from phones and systems and prohibit internet traffic from reaching the company, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young told agencies in a guidance memorandum seen by Reuters. The ban, ordered by Congress late last year, follows similar actions from Canada, the EU, Taiwan and more than half of US states. The device ban — while impacting a tiny portion of TikTok’s US user base — adds fuel to calls for an outright ban on the video-sharing app. National security concerns about China surged in recent weeks after a Chinese balloon drifted over the US. ByteDance-owned TikTok has said the concerns are fueled by misinformation and has denied using the app to spy on Americans. The action does not affect the more than 100 million Americans who use TikTok on private or company-owned devices. TikTok did not immediately comment on the White House memo. Congress in December voted to bar federal employees from using the Chineseowned video app on government-owned devices and gave the Biden administration 60 days to issue agency directives. The vote was the latest action by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies amid national security fears that Beijing could use them to spy on Americans. Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said “this guidance is part of the Administration’s ongoing commitment to securing our digital infrastructure and protecting the American people’s security and privacy.” Many government agencies including the White House, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department had banned TikTok from government devices before the vote.

Further explaining the census objective, Mr Gondal shared that “as per the General Statistics Reorganization Act 2011 and UN Conventions, census is a national duty to inform policy making, future planning and development for the progress of the country. Participation in the census is mandatory and providing reliable information is a civic duty for everyone living in Pakistan.”

Mr Gondal was grateful for the positive feedback as it is helping NADRA improve their systems.

Responding to another question regarding concerns being raised on the process from Sindh, in particular Karachi, Balochistan and a few other quarters, Gondal said that prior to the census extensive and intensive consultations were held at levels, especially with provincial stakeholders to explain the complete digital process. The apprehensions being raised are due to a lack of understanding of what the census process entails. PBS is once

According to him, spreading fake news or misinformation for any purpose is a criminal offense, or politicizing it or using it for agenda setting is dishonesty to the country and to the people. Census is our national duty and together we have to make this first-ever digital census a global success.

Staying true to the principles of honesty and integrity, fulfilling its main mandate and the decision of the CCI, PBS is conducting the first-ever digital census with the objective of providing credible, transparent and timely data for decision-making. The digitization of the census guarantees transparency, accountability and efficiency.

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