THIS is apropos the editorial ‘Census results’ (Dec 24), which informed the readers about the cabinet’s approval of the results of the 2017 census ‘three years after the fact’. It is surprising that despite such a delay the cabinet proposed that the exercise be conducted every three years instead of decennially as mandated by the Constitution.

How could the cabinet be so unrealistic as to propose that the census be conducted every three years when mere approval of the last census results itself took three years? Moreover, looking at the country’s dismal census record, is such a proposal at all realistic?

The census is a mammoth and costly exercise. Planning a census, collection of data and processing of the data take a lot of time. As such, most countries conduct a census every 10 years.

A few conduct it every five years, and, to the best of my knowledge, there is no country which conducts a census every three years.

To expect that in Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country with a not-too-satisfactory history of censuses, is unrealistic, to say the least. At best, Pakistan should consider conducting a census every 10 years with an intercensal sample survey every five years.

Dr Ghazy Mujahid
Canada

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2021