In Karachi, many blocks of Central, East and South districts are yet to be enumerated

Official from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics collect information from a resident during the the digital census. — APP

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday extended the deadline for the country's ongoing first-ever digital population and housing census till April 10 to ensure the complete coverage of the population and leftover houses.

The 7th population and housing census was to be officially culminated today (April 4). According to a notification issued by the PBS, the last date for the ongoing census has been extended on the recommendation of the provincial census commissioners, the chief census commissioner.

It further said that the body has approved the extension of the census fieldwork for six days.

“The instructions regarding the extension in the field operations of the population and housing census may be conveyed to the census field staff and other concerned for smooth completion of the census field operations,” read the notification.

The security-related institutions may also be conveyed for the security arrangements of census field staff till the extended time of April 10, 2023, it added.

The PBS had announced a day earlier that the population count in the leftover blocks will continue in Pakistan, including Karachi.

Talha Shakeel, a resident of Korangi, told The News that he had to lodge an official complaint earlier today to get his family enumerated.

"I called on the complaint number to lodge my complaint. I got a response within an hour and the team visited my residence in a couple of hours," Shakeel added.

In Karachi, many blocks of Central, East and South districts are yet to be enumerated. Residents of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) have been complaining that their houses haven’t been listed yet, let alone the enumeration of their families.

Until Monday 3pm, the PBS had listed 2.94 million households in their database. The enumerated households were 2.42 million, while the enumerated population was 12.33 million. With the given data the experts are already estimating Karachi’s population to be around 17.5 million.

An officer of the PBS told The News more than 82% of Karachi had been enumerated at around 3pm on Monday. The figure keeps increasing by the minute as the data keeps syncing into their system.

For the census, the process of self-enumeration kicked off on February 20 and was supposed to last until March 3. However, at the request of the Sindh government, the date was extended until March 10.

The PBS started door-to-door enumeration of buildings throughout the country from March 1. There was a break on March 11 and March 12, and then the population count kicked off, which was to end on April 4. The homeless population was to be counted on the night of April 4.

Zubair Ahmed, an official of the PBS in Karachi, told The News that the entire city’s household enumeration would be completed in a span of two to three days.