Federal budget 2017-18 to be presented on May 26, 2017

ISLAMABAD : Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Sunday that the federal budget 2017-2018 will be presented on May 26 before the parliament.

In a press conference, Dar said in consideration of the month of Ramzan, the government has decided to present the budget earlier in the parliament.

The finance minister said that the government of Pakistan rejects objection of the United Nations over the army`s assistance in the census, further adding that the people of North Waziristan and Federal Administrative Tribal Areas will be counted in the second phase of the census.

“Census will also be held in the areas under army operation,” Dar said. “We will also count those who are migrants in the country,” he added.

Second census phase to begin from April 25

Chief Census Commissioner Asif Bajwa said that as many as 63 districts have been covered by the census team and the second leg of the exercise will begin from April 25.

The chief census commissioner said that work in all provincial capitals has been completed, adding that the census teams were welcomed and extended utmost cooperation by the people of Pakistan. He said that query centres were also established in districts.

Bajwa informed that two abducted staffers from the Kech districts are yet to be recovered.

Earlier, according to the chief statistician, as many as 118,000 enumerators from different departments, including the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, have been trained for the process. 175,000 Army personnel have been deployed in the districts for the first phase of the census.

One Army soldier would be attached with one enumerator throughout the exercise and they would be provided proper security cover-up by the Army.

The first phase, which commenced on March 15, was conducted in eight districts of Sindh, 16 districts of Punjab, 14 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 districts of Balochistan, five districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and five districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, official sources said.