To give more reliability and authenticity to the official data relating to economy, population, agriculture, trade and other areas, the government announced formation of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics by merging three previous entities which would be managed by professionals. Addressing a press conference on Friday, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said government has formed a professional’s lead Governing Council for the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to produce independent and credible economic data that would be trusted worldwide. He announced the merger of Federal Bureau of Statistics, the Population Census Organisation and the Agriculture Census Organisation to create Pakistan Bureau of Statistics Organisation after the passage of Law by the parliament to establish an autonomous body of statistics.
The independent organisation will be run by an autonomous governing council consist of professional economists and statisticians, said Hafeez Sheikh. Statistics body had been due for the last several years, but pressure from International Monetary Fund (IMF) forced government to step up efforts in that regard. Statistics body and governing council will function autonomously not be answerable to any ministry and will be autonomous in its decisions. Sheikh while answering the questions said legal protection has been given to new organization to secure it from any type of influence. Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh would be the first Chairman of the Governing Council of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. However, the organisation PBS will be headed by a Chief Statistician who will be hired from the private sector. The advertisements in this regard will be published in important national and international dailies; Hafeez said and added that the Chief Statistician will be hired through proper channel from the private sector. A three member HR Committee formed to interview and appoint the Chief Statistician. Members of the first governing council of PBS are Federal Finance Minister, Secretary Statistics Division, Professor Muhammad Nizamuddin, Vice Chancellor, Gujrat University, Dr Shamshad Akhtar, former Governor SBP, Dr Zeba Sathar Country Director population Council (Pakistan), Dr Naveed Hamid Professor of Economics, Lahore School of Economics, Dr Mehtab Karim, Dr Eshya Mujahid, Mehmood Khan, Mohsin Hassan Khan. The law provides formation of ‘Data Users Council’ to guide and given input in the policies of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The Users council will include representatives from provincial governments, State Bank, private sector and media. Provision has been made for release and dissemination of data by statistics authority while protecting secrecy of individuals, firms and institutions.
Law also provides for establishment of a statistics fund to ensure financial autonomy to the bureau. Protection has been provided in the draft law to existing employees of the bureau in terms of service and they will be governed by the Civil Servants Act 1973 and its rules and will continue service on same terms and conditions. Moreover, a new Statistics Research and Training Institute (SRTI) would be established in Lahore to train officials of statistical organisations. By establishing independent Statistics organization, authorities hoped to qualify for IMF Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS) during current calendar year.
Long awaited right decision of worthy finance minister of formation of pakistan bureau of statistics and we look forward that this institution will provide realistic statistics on various parameters of the economy of pakistan which is an essence in the planning and development process,
The re-structuring of the FBS was a long-awaited issue, which now has been settled by the present government, But it is still to be seen that whether the establishment of the autonomous body proves to be a pre-requisite in the availability of reliable official statistics or not. As, it can be noted that the officials of the federal bureau, while collecting official statistics through different kinds of surveys etc. had not any kind of authority or force like which is vested in the Police, military and Judiciary, except that they were the employees of the GOVERNMENT. To an enumerator, being the focal person who collects data, restructuring of the department is quite not an issue, but for the respondent, being the member of a more or less conservative society, it matters too much that the person, who wants to get certain important information, which can lead him to face taxation on his income, belongs to either a government owned body or private. OMER FAROOQ
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
what will be the fature of the Statistical Assistants in PBS by The POpulation Census Organization ,posted in field,performing duties in Census organization /certain important information?????
, define service structure of employee etc.?
it is learned and circulated around that the old faces will again take the key posts and if so then what was the need of all this please bring new and young expertise.
Statistics means the science of State,or the eyes and ears of the ruller, to collect reliable unbiased,consistant,effecient, and suffecient data timely data for moniorin and evaluation of socio-economic demographic and envoirmental changing factors and their interrelationship iwth given confidence. (sampling and non sampling error)
Preferably on district level to rank all about120 distts.accoding to the HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI) used by the the UNDP since 1991 and to measure the gap within the distt. achievment toward the millinium devlopment goal (MDGs) and compare it with other countries particularly with other asian and muslim 57 states.
FOR this purpose we need well qualified statistcal trained statistcal authority through promollagation of statistical act of 1974 to overcome the problem of deliberatly providing unreliable facts and figure particularly in the econmic and social sectors.
PBS, irrespective of its modified nomenclature and that too on the advice and insistence of IMF will remain a part of prevailing weak governing system , resulting betterment to be very marginal.
all qualified employees who are working in PBS , badly impressed b/c promotion chances decreased as Statistical Assistants promotion are decreased 50% fifty present to 20% why /?
all world is going to specialization for better use and better results, in pakistan we r merging departments as (PBS) , STATISTICS DIVISION should be as ( Pakistan Census Organization, Pakistan Agri. Census organization), Fedral Bureau of Statistics ,
we as employee as Statistical Assistants , SO,ACC ETC. do not like this merger ……promotion structure should be made for PBS Accoding to performance +Education/Qualification AND experience realated Subjects as Economics/ MATH. /STATISTICS ETC. , there should be a time scale promotion also but if we look seriously we come to know that higher athorties/KEY POSTS are making their own interests in merging as PBS.
BY MERGING DEPARTMENTS THEIR (EMPLOYEES) PERFORMANCE DECREASED DUE TO CHIEF AND PBS WITH OUT SERVICE STRUCTURE ………..QUALIFIED PERSONS WHO ARE WORKING THESE DEPARTMENTS AS PCO,ACO,FBS DISTURB AND ARE LEAVING DUE TO THE NON COPRATIVE AND NON PROMOTION IN PBS
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