We, as the Government, are always aiming and working at improving the life of our fellow citizens of this beautiful country, but to do so, we need to know what is the shape of our population: how many people are we, how many are young, how many are old, how are we distributed on the territory, what is the level of education, how is our labour market, etc.
Indeed, planning for the good of our people cannot be done if we do not have a precise idea of the characteristics of our population; that is why today I am here to urge all of you to be part of Pakistan's Census 2017! If we want to respond adequately to the economic and social challenges ahead of us, if we want to know how many schools, hospitals and other facilities are required for our next generation, we must all participate in this upcoming census.
The census is an independent and scientific undertaking where all your information and responses that you provide to the enumerators will be strictly kept confidential so that it cannot be misused.
Participating in the census is essential, it is everybody's civic duty, and it is very simple: all of you throughout the country will be visited by an official census enumerator between the 15th March and the 25th May 2017. These enumerators have been trained to collect data in each household. Enumerators will come to your household to ask you important questions that you need to truthfully answer: do not forget, your answers count and shape the future policies and programmes of our country. The enumerators are going to ask you details on all the people who usually reside in your household: declare all of them, as we ALL count! Do not forget anybody: pay attention to correctly declare all the women in your household, all the young ones, all the elderly, and all those who suffer from disabilities.
Please, respond precisely to all the questions that enumerators are going to ask you; they are all important: including age, marital status, education, employment, religion to the characteristics of your habitation. Again the enumerators must respect confidentiality and will never disclose your information to any other parties.
Please cooperate, and be kind to the enumerators: their job is hard and tiring and they work for the good of us all: so receive them well and answer their questions truthfully.
I know that our country and its people know when to stand up for its future; I know that we want development of our country, and that we will all participate and be counted in the census for our own good and for the benefit of our generations to come!
Let's all participate in census 2017, be ready to be counted from 15th March to 25th May 2017!