Digital census

The country is set to take a giant leap forward in the enumeration of its human resources after the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics received the last of the 126,000 tablet computers sanctioned for a 'digital census' of the population.

In the words of Nadra Chairman Tariq Malik, the exercise will evolve "From scribbled responses on millions of paper sheets to real-time validated data in apps on secure devices with satellite imagery".

It is hoped that this transformation will make the massive exercise of counting more than 200m citizens not just quicker and more efficient but also much more precise. The possibilities seem endless.

With detailed data made digitally available with the PBS, Pakistani authorities and policymakers will have, as Mr Malik has described it, "a foundational system for evidencebased policymaking."

For example, thanks to the global positioning system and geographical information system data hoped to be collected through the digital census, it will become much easier for authorities to see where Pakistanis live and how best to reach them.

Such information will be incredibly handy when dealing with national-level emergencies, such as epidemics or natural disasters. GPS data could be used to implement very targeted lockdowns, for example, while GIS data will come in handy when understanding the impact of a calamity, like the floods seen this year, and devising the most efficient solutions for emergency response.

Even the traditional use of census data - for example, in conducting delimitation exercises and allocating seats in parliament - will be massively transformed as important decisions such as how to mark constituencies could be taken at a granular level rather than on guesstimates and assumptions alone.

It may be a good idea to involve representatives of political parties in the exercise to keep it transparent so that they do not have any objections to the census results once they are put out.

It would, undoubtedly, be desirable if future elections could be conducted based on scientifically collected, accurate data. All political parties are in agreement over this.

However, it should be made clear that the timeline of the first digital census will not affect the general elections due this year to avoid any political controversy over an otherwise commendable initiative.

Finally, information is power, and it will be a major responsibility for PBS and Nadra to ensure that the census data collected stays secure and is used judiciously.