How will the Pakistan census be carried out? Here’s what you need to know

KARACHI: Pakistan will hold its sixth population census tomorrow (on Wednesday) after a long gap of 19 years.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the census will be carried out in two phases. The first phase will start from March 15 and will continue till mid-April this year, and will cover more than 60 districts of Pakistan. These include 16 district of Punjab, eight districts of Sindh, including Karachi division, 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa, Orakzai Agency from FATA, 15 district of Balochistan, including Quetta, five districts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and five districts of Gilgit Baltistan.

The second phase will begin after a gap of 10 days on 25 April and end on May 25 this year. Around 90 districts in the country will be covered, including the Federal Capital, Rawalpindi as well as 20 districts of Punjab, 21 districts of Sindh, 13 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa, six agencies of FATA, 17 districts of Balochistan , five districts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and five districts of Gilgit Baltistan.

For easier and better administration, the PBS has divided these districts into blocks, circles and charges.

Each block in urban and rural areas will comprise 200 to 300 houses, while a census circle will have five to seven blocks. Charges will consist of five to seven census circles.

According to these administrative divisions, there are more than 168,000 blocks, 21,000 circles and 3,000 charges.