The Council of Common Interests (CCI) during its 49th meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday approved the conduct of the 7th Population and Housing Census as well as the establishment of the census monitoring committee.
The committee will be chaired by the planning commission deputy chairman, all provincial chief secretaries, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) chairman, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) chief commissioner and other senior officials.
The committee will oversee and monitor census activities to ensure expeditious, transparent and credible census operations, a press release issued by the PM’s Office said.
As per recommendations of the Census Advisory Committee, the CCI decided to conduct the 7th census by adopting international best practices, using digital technology and GIS monitoring system. It was shared that the housing census would be conducted before the population census.
While welcoming the chief ministers, the prime minister stated that frequency of CCI meetings can be increased according to the demands of the provinces.
He congratulated the CCI members on the establishment of CCI’s permanent secretariat and stated that it manifested a collaborative spirit between the federal and provincial governments. He stressed that the federal government was fully committed to resolving national issues in consultation with all federating units and stakeholders.
He added that the government wanted to have credible census data that can be used for initiating policies and projects for the welfare of citizens.
The meeting approved the annual report of CCI for the fiscal year 2020-21. It was told that a total of six meetings were conducted during the FY2020-21 during which 21 agenda items were considered with 13 decisions implemented and six decisions under process.
While discussing the implementation status of previous decisions, the CCI was informed that an independent CCI secretariat had been established with a total outlay of Rs110.92 million.
It was also decided that additional water requirements for Karachi would be discussed by the committee formed to reconcile views of the provinces at political and technical levels.
