ISLAMABAD: The federal government has taken a firm stand before the Supreme Court that population censusin the country is not possible before March next year and that too if required strength of army personnel is available.

Earlier also the government had told the apex court that proposing a schedule for holding census was currently not possible because of non-availability of around 167,000 army personnel for deployment during the exercise.

The reason cited for non-availability of army personnel is their deployment in Zarb-i-Azb military operation against terrorists and for other security-related tasks.

A fresh report has been submitted to the court by Additional Attorney General Mohammad Waqar Rana on behalf of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The court is seized with a case, initiated on a suo motu notice, on the delay in the conduct of census.

`In case necessary strength of the armed forces is made available, a date will be proposed to the Council of Common Interest (CCI) for holding the census in the country, possibly in March/ April 2017,` the three-page report says.

After rejecting the reasons for delay in conducting census, the court on July 15 had ordered the government to come out with a definitive time-frame for holding the much-needed head count.

The report says that the statistics division held a meeting on census with the defence ministry on July 22 which was also attended by representatives of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), the military operations directorate of the GHQ and the PBS.

The meeting discussed position for holding census under the supervision of the armed forces with a particular reference to the use of Nadra`s database in aid of census results and the use of latest technology like android cell phones/tab-lets during the exercise instead of traditional methods.

After deliberations, the report says, the meeting decided that the CCI will be informed about proceedings of the meeting which was told that a decision about availability of armed forces for census would be made by the military operations directorate at the end of this year.

The meeting also decided that on completion of the computerised national identity cards verification exercise, Nadra through interior ministry would inform the PBS about blocked and cancelled CNICs issued to Afghans and other aliens.

Meanwhile, the PBS will make preparations for the use of latest technology in data collection i.e. android cell phones/ tablets to the possible extent.

The status will also be immediately submitted to the inter-provincial coordination division, the report says. Census is now mentioned in part-II-9 of the constitution and falls within the purview of the CCI.

It says that funds required for census have been allocated by the finance ministry in the budget 2016-17 and the PBS, entrusted with the function of holding census under Section 31 of the General Statistics (Re-Organisation) Act 2011, has completed arrangements on the civil side for holding census.

According to the report, the first four censuses were held in the country on time in1951,1961,1972and1981.

They were conducted by the Population Census Organisation in collaboration with the provincial governments. The fifth census wad due in 1991.

It says that the house listing operation carried out in 1990 showed abnormal growth in population in some parts of the country, not justified by normal demographic indicators.

Consequently the government decided to postpone the 1991 census, it says.

Another effort was made in 1994 which could not succeed due to pressure by political parties and ethnic groups, which wanted to manipulate the census process to their advantage.

Finally it was decided to conduct census in 1998 with the support of the armed forces, an idea broadly accepted by all political parties, the report says.

The sixth census was due in 2008 but it could not be conducted because of law and order situationin the country, shortage of staffand nnancialconstraints,itsays.