The series of sensitization workshops on the 7th Population & Housing Census (Digital Census) began on Friday at Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad.

Hosted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the one day workshop featured the sensitization of the academia, researchers, policymakers as well as the public, since it symbolizes the beginning of a critical synergetic relationship that will exist between the PBS and the stakeholders throughout the gigantic national activity.

The event covered keynote speeches, a presentation on the 7th Population & Housing and a discussion session between the stakeholders and PBS.

Vice-Chancellor Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Prof Dr Ziaul Qayyum in his inaugural speech congratulated the government and PBS on taking the initiative of Digital Census. He appreciated that geotagging and electronic data collection will increase the reliability and transparency of the process. He offered full support for this national cause.

The focal person on Digital Census Muhammad Sarwar Gondal in his presentation emphasized that the involvement of stakeholders from start to end will be a priority of PBS for wide acceptability of census results. He said that it will clear their concepts regarding the census process and will be a start of their involvement and ownership in the census process.

He further sensitized about recommendations of the Census Advisory Committee for the conduct of the census. He added that PBS is conducting census after a five-year interval, as per the decision of Council of Common Interests (CCI), for the first time, with the use of the latest tools and technologies for improved quality of data.

Gondal said that efforts are made to address the issues identified in Population & Housing Census 2017. The questionnaire has been drafted by the technical committee to address the objectives of the census, he added..

Chief Statistician Dr Naeem-uz-Zafar in his closing remarks appreciated the efforts of the PBS team and hoped that they will work with the same dedication to accomplish this task.

Sensitization workshops are an effort of PBS to bring awareness about the census process among the masses and to avoid the trust deficit by engaging academia/universities, researchers, demographers, data users, NGOs and other stakeholders. Similar workshops will also be held at the provincial level.

Source: Pro Pakistani