Karachi: On Thursday, PBS staff told political leaders about the current census, including how it is going and what numbers have been collected so far.
Minister for Planning and Development Iqbal told the press after the briefing that his ministry wanted to make sure the census was done in a way that was “acceptable to all.”
“The process of counting people in cities has been slow,” he said. “Counting also couldn’t be done in remote places. There was an unusual rise in population in some places.”
The minister said that it had been decided to speed up the counting process.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, who is the Emir of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in Karachi and spoke to the media with Iqbal, said that he had told the PBS about his concerns.
“Half of the people in Karachi have not been counted. We’ve asked PBS to find out where people have been undercounted or overcounted.”
For the first time in the history of the country, PBS is running the current census digitally. Census field operations have been going on nonstop since March 1.
But it has been extending the time it gives itself to finish the census work. Most recently, it moved the date to May 15 for the fifth time.