Altaf Hamid RAO
MIRPUR ( AJK ), (Parliament Times) : Pakistan Bureau of Statistics hosted a sensitization workshop on 7th Digital Population and Housing Census, 2022, in the State metropolis on Monday
Holding of the event was aimed at to apprise the AJK State Government functionaries (Chief Secretary, relevant Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners) regarding the Census process, tools, techniques, methodology and the State Government role for smooth execution of the upcoming census.
Furthermore, the goal of the workshop was to bring transparency in the whole process to be adopted for broader involvement and ownership, as census will be executed and monitored at provincial level.
Chief Secretary, AJK, Muhammad Usman Chachar, was chief guest on the occasion. The workshop was attended by Senior Member Board of Revenue, Secretary local govt, Secretary Education, other secretaries and additional secretaries,IG police, DG Health, DG IT Board, Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners from AJ & K.
Chief Statistician PBS, Dr.Naeemuz Zafar, welcomed all the distinguished guests and gave the background and introduction of Census. He elaborated the importance of census with the role of provinces in its success. He appraised the participants that the provinces are important stakeholders having the key role of planning, training, implementation, and monitoring in the census, whereas, PBS will coordinate and facilitate for smooth and transparent conduct of census.
Member (Support Services/ Resource Management) PBS, Muhammad Sarwar Gondal gave a detailed presentation on forthcoming census, especially in terms of digital conduct of census.
He informed the audience about the role of different tiers of provincial administration at various stages of census. He emphasized that the digital census requires provision of computer literate trainers and enumerators by the provincial government.
During the Question answer session, officials from PBS responded to queries and comments by participants.
Chief Secretary, AJK, Muhammad Usman Chachar, appreciated the efforts of PBS for confidence building of its stakeholders. He further said that Census is National Obligation as it is essential; for Planning and Policy making. District administration is responsible to conduct the census, therefore, all Deputy Commissioners must ensure the recruitment of qualified and computer literate staff for enumeration and training as per requirement of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
He also emphasized on capacity building of staff involved in census and establishment of Census Support centres at each Tehsil in AJK. He suggested adding the question related to refugees coming to Kashmir in the Census questionnaire.In the end he assured that districts in AJK will exhibit full support and cooperation.
On the occasion, the Chief Statistician thanked all the guests for their active participation and commitment for the census.
