A meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) has decided to conduct the 7th Population and Housing Census in the country and established a “census monitoring committee” to oversee and monitor census activities to ensure expeditious, transparent, and credible census operations.

The meeting of the CCI presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by the chief ministers, on Thursday, gave approval to conduct the 7th Census and establishment of “Census Monitoring Committee”.

This committee will be chaired by deputy chairman Planning Commission, and comprising all provincial chief secretaries, chairman National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), chief commissioner Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and other senior officials. The Committee will oversee and monitor census activities to ensure an expeditious, transparent and credible census operations.

The Prime Minister Office said that as per recommendations of the Census Advisory Committee, the CCI decided to conduct the 7th census adopting international best practices, using digital technology and GIS monitoring system. The meeting was told that housing census would be conducted before the population census.

The prime minister stated that the government wanted to have a credible census data that can be used for initiating policies and projects for the welfare of citizens. The meeting was informed that that an independent CCI Secretariat has been established with a budget of Rs110.928 million. An independent Secretariat will facilitate effective coordination between the federal and the provincial governments.

The meeting also approved annual report of the CCI for the fiscal year 2020-21, while it was informed that a total of six meetings were conducted during fiscal year 2020-21 during which twenty-one agenda items were taken up, out of which 13 were implemented, whereas, six decisions are under process.

The CCI also decided that additional water requirements for Karachi would be discussed by the committee formed to reconcile views of the provinces at the political and technical levels besides issues related to water.

The prime minister stated that frequency of the CCI meetings can be increased as per demands of the provinces. The prime minister also congratulated the CCI members on establishment of the CCI’s permanent secretariat and stated that it manifests a collaborative spirit between the federal and the provincial governments. The prime minister emphasised that the federal government is fully committed to resolve national issues in consultation with all the federating units and the stakeholders.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on January 14, 2022.