Islamabad: Minister of Finance and Revenue Muhammad Ishaq Dar on Sunday stressed that the digital census, which was unanimously approved by the Council for Common Interests (CCI), has a lower probability of error.
Ishaq Dar defended the digital census in the upper house during a point of order, pointing out that the decision on the new census was made by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. He informed the Senate that 34 billion rupees had been spent on this project.
He mentioned that the census had been approved by eight members of the CCI.
The Finance Minister mentioned that comprehensive information had been provided to all provinces.
The average population growth rate is 2.55 percent compared to 2.44 percent in the 2017 census, with Balochistan showing the highest growth rate of 3.25 percent. The digital census incurred expenses of 34 billion rupees, he said.
The finance minister also revealed that a minister of the previous government had harmed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
He assured that reforms would be carried out to improve aviation and that efforts would be focused on improving the performance of steel mills. Steps were being taken to reduce the PIA’s deficit, and some aviation-related legislation had been submitted to Parliament, he said.
Senator Ishaq Dar stressed that matters of national interest should not be politicized. He also told the Senate that PIA would resume flights to the UK in October.
