KARACHI – The federal government is considering new statistical laws to establish Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and, hence, at restructuring the country’s entire national statistical system (NSS). This was stated by the Government of Pakistan Secretary Statistics Division Asif Bajwa, while inaugurating a one-day seminar on “Contributions and Achievements of Official Statistics” here at SBP Learning Resource Centre on Saturday. The federal secretary said that PBS would be established with the merger of Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), Population Census Organisation (PCO) and Agriculture Census Organisation (ACO) if this law is adopted.
He stated that a National Statistics Development Strategy (NSDS) is being developed to provide a strategy for strengthening statistical capacity across the entire NSS. Quarterly National Accounts (QNA), an international obligation, is in its final stage and the first QNA would be released probably in the first quarter of the new financial year, he added.
He disclosed that a new Statistics Research and Training Institute (SRTI) will also be established in Lahore to train officials of statistical organisations. Bajwa said the Census 2011 had been initiated and house listing would be carried out in April, 2011, while enumeration would start from September this year. The secretary expressed hope that Pakistan would qualify for IMF Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS) during the current calendar year. Earlier, in his welcome address, SBP Chief Economic Advisor Riaz Riazuddin said that sound policy decisions always depend on up-to-date, efficient and timely statistics. He, however, emphasised that the quality of statistics could only be improved through collaboration among data producing agencies and other stakeholders.
“The state of a country’s development can be judged from the type and quality of statistics it produces,” he added. Speaking on the occasion SBP Dr Azizullah Khattak, Director, Statistics and DWH Department, said the seminar had also provided a forum for developing future coordination and interaction among users and producers of statistics, which was essential for an efficient statistical system of a country.
“We also need to work together to meet an increasing demand for statistics arising from rapid changes in global environment. Adopting international standards is also essential for improving credibility of our statistics in the international community,” he added.
Federal Bureau of Statistics Deputy Director General Munir Ahmad Aslam made presentations on ‘Price Statistics’ and ‘National Accounts of Pakistan’, Habib Ullah Khan, Census Commissioner, Population Census Organisation on ‘Population Census Statistics’, Noor Muhammad Dharejo of Agriculture Census Organisation on ‘Agriculture Census Statistics’, Shamim Wazir Deputy Chief, Economic Affairs Division, on ‘Foreign Loans & Disbursements’, Shamsul Arifeen, Senior Joint Director, Statistics and DWH Department, SBP on ‘Balance of Payments of Pakistan’ and Rizwan Ahmed, Joint Director, Statistics and DWH Department, SBP on ‘Monetary Statistics’.
