Pakistan's first digital census tackles miscounts, exclusion Premium

Rights activists said the new digital process should be made as accessible as possible to include previously excluded or undercounted groups

Father-of-two Muhammad Saqib excitedly types his family's details on a laptop in his Lahore office — the first time fast-growing Pakistan is counting its population digitally.

"My infant daughter has also been counted," the 38-year-old smiled, pressing 'submit' on the portal that was inaugurated last week to the beat of an Urdu song meaning 'upon you depends your future' at an event in Islamabad, the capital. The optional self-registration will be followed from March 1 by a month-long collection of details by more than 120,000 enumerators using tablets and mobiles, which organisers say will make the process more accurate, transparent and credible.

From the United States to Estonia, countries around the world are digitising their population count to streamline the process, improve accuracy, and rein in cost increases.

Electoral seats in Pakistan's parliament as well as funding for basic services like schools and hospitals are assigned using population density data. Previous exercises have been marred by allegations of miscount and exclusion of some groups.

Rights activists said the new digital process should be made as accessible as possible to include previously excluded or undercounted groups such as transgender people and ethnic minorities.

Asim Bashir Khan, an economist and census expert for Karachi's Institute of Business Administration, said he was shocked to see no population recorded in the previous 2017 census in some densely populated areas in the southern city of Karachi.

"Since people were not counted where they lived, but at their de jure position or the permanent address their identity cards showed, it resulted in an undercount where they consumed resources and an over-reporting where they didn't," Mr. Khan said in a phone interview.