Online
Islamabad
Chairman, National Democratic Foundation, KanwarDilshad, has raised serious concerns about the present National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) survey being conducted by the BISP.
He said that according to media reports, it is planned to conduct house to house survey to record the socio-economic data of all Pakistani households. In the first phase the project will cover 16 districts and later all the Pakistani districts including AJK and GB will be covered. The total cost of this project is Rs. 17 billion, loan money from World Bank. Pilot project has been started in Gilgit, Charsadda, Mohammad Agency, Mirpur, LakkiMarwat, QilaSaifullah, Kaich, Layyah, Chakwal, Faisalabad, Jaccoabad and
Thatta.Harripur, Nasirabad, Sukhur and Bahawalpur are already covered. All these districts are on CPEC route.
Besides other parameters the survey will record GPS coordinates of all the households which will be done through computerized tablets. On 25 February 2017, the government informed the media that in order to ensure complete coverage of the population, computer based enlisting with the help of
Google maps would also be utilized. The NDF team opined that in the past the government has expelled iMap (an American NGO) and another from Pakistan as they were recording the coordinates of various locations and preparing satellite maps, said a press release issued here on Friday.
Dilshad said that during his time as a Secretary Election Commission, the Government did not allow donors to conduct geo-mapping of constituencies in Pakistan. Dilshad said that BISP is plagued with foreign consultants, consulting
firms and NGOs who are even not registered with the government. He said stories of corruption in BISP are already in media and the question is that why the government is allowing satellite mapping of all the households of Pakistan, AJK and GB. He raised the question of the data security? If the data gets into the hands of anti-Pakistan elements, will it not make all the households in Pakistan vulnerable to drone attacks?
Dilshad said that the Benazir Income Support Program is a poverty programme, and instead of giving Rs. 17 billion to consultants and NGOs for mapping, why does it not spend the same money to help the poor and needy? Why don’t BISP combine its survey with population census 2017 starting in March 2017 to save Rs. 17 billion of the nation? The premier security agency should take custody of all the tablets and data.
The government need to review its strategy he emphasized.
