Federal Govt asks Sindh to appoint focal person for census.

ISLAMABAD: The census monitoring committee on Wednesday approved the Sindh government’s nomination of one of its provincial ministers as a focal point for more coordinated communication in order to expedite the ongoing national headcount operation.

According to a news release issued here, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal presided over the 7th meeting of the Census Monitoring Committee to examine progress in the country’s first digital census activities, field operations, and other relevant concerns.

“The meeting determined that the Sindh government would appoint one of its cabinet members as a focal person for more coordinated communication in order to move the census operation at a faster pace,” it added.

During the conference, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Director General Dr Naeem Zafar updated participants on the status of the census. On the occasion, Iqbal stated that the government was collaborating with all provinces to undertake a digital census.

The minister directed the relevant agencies to begin an effective media campaign to project the ongoing census and raise public knowledge about the difference between the digital census and previous censuses.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chairperson National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), PBS chief, chief secretaries of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan, as well as other officials, attended the meeting.

The development occurred a day after the PPP threatened to resign from federal ministries, pushing the coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to grant provincial governments access to census monitoring dashboards.

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The decision to grant access to provincial governments, particularly Sindh, was made primarily to persuade the key ally to remain loyal to the federal government and avoid any second thoughts at a time when the country is experiencing political upheaval and severe financial crises, just ahead of general elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“It has been decided that the statistics as required by the provincial governments, particularly Sindh, may be included in the monitoring dashboard,” said Dr Naeemuz Zafar, Chief Statistician of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), in a letter to the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

The dashboard has already been deployed for chief secretaries, according to the top census commissioner, and role-based access to the same may be offered to all provincial/regional chief secretaries, commissioners, deputy commissioners (DCs), and assistant commissioners (ACs).

Bearing in view the sensitivity of the topic, Zafar remarked, NADRA teams be asked to assure access to the dashboard by March 15 to all the DCs and ACs “at all census district level for greater involvement, transparency and credibility of this national activity of extreme importance”.

PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari recently threatened to leave the ruling coalition over concerns to the ongoing digital census, as well as if the Centre fails to fulfil its commitments to provide help to Sindh flood victims.