Armed Forces authorities have raised reservations over a proposal to take private sector on board in establishing PBS (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics) Software House for development of software solution for census data collection, Pakistan Today has learnt.
A meeting was held in the office of Director General Military Operation Directorate, GHQ, Rawalpindi to discuss availability of armed forces for deployment with the civilian staff for census operation. The meeting was attended by Asif Bajwa, Chief Statistician; Habib Ullah Khan, Member (Censuses & Surveys), PBS; Maj.Gen. Amjad Butt, Commandant, Military College of Signals, Rawalpindi; Brig. Azhar Waqas, Director, M.O. Directorate; Col. Dr. Adnan Rashidi, MCS; and Col. Arslan from Military Operation Directorate. The meeting took up various proposals while the issue of availability of army personnel for census operation was also remained in discussion and meeting also made some conclusion at the end of discussion.
During the course of the meeting, it was proposed that commercial establishments/privately run ware houses also have the capacity to work on the project who can be taken on board. “However, the military authorities had reservation about the security issues as the data being collected through census process will be confidential in nature and hence its security will be of utmost importance,” sources said.
Sources further said the military authorities were of the view that upto 42,000 army personnel can be spared at the ratio of 4 to 1 i-e one army supervisor will simultaneously supervise the work of four enumerators through applying smart solution. However, the availability of army personnel will depend on whether the census operation will be one go or in phases. However, the troops would be available after Pakistan Day parade i.e 23rd March, 2017.
The meeting concluded that “PBS Soft ware House may be established in Islamabad under the ambit of PBS with Team Leader who should be a highly qualified person along with 60 to 70 experts in software development for development of software solution for census data collection.” And, coordination for hiring of software development team may be made with Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT), NADRA, Punjab IT Board, or any other organization dealing with such assignments.
The sources said the meeting also decided that permanent setup may be established under the supervision of PBS as it is their exclusive responsibility for conducting census. The armed forces team of experts will be in support of such experts and will work with them in close coordination. Effort may be made to run pilot project in January-February, or at the most by the end of March, 2017. However, this challenge will be taken up by the software development team.
