Senate Body Expresses Reservation On Reliability Of Pakistan Bureau Of Statistics Data

The Senate Standing Committee on Statistics on Monday expressed its reservation about the reliability of data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and urged its officials to improve authenticity of facts and figures.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Oct, 2018 ) :The Senate Standing Committee on Statistics on Monday expressed its reservation about the reliability of data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and urged its officials to improve authenticity of facts and figures. The Committee also sought future road map from PBS, asking them to improve their data verification system and clarify the reservation of the Committee.

Chaired by Senator Dr. Jehanzeb Jamaldini here in Parliament Hose, the Committee was given detail briefing by the Ministry on Mineral Statistics in Pakistan.The Committee was told that the data provided a list of minerals in all four provinces, yearly growth rate and yearly production rates of minerals in Pakistan. It also discussed the share in national economy and the issue that the industry faced.

It was revealed that time lag was a major issue that the ministry of Statistics faced regarding data collection from the four provinces.

On the occasion, Chairman Committee Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini call the Ministry for Finance, Federal board of the Revenue(FBR), Ministry of Law and other concerned institutions to give suggestion for enhancing the capacity of PBS. He shown displeasure regarding the authenticity of the collected data and said that major lacuna's can be found in it.He stressed the need for the Ministry to generate basic data and said that this would not only benefit the ministry but would also help the Standing Committees of the Parliament greatly.

The Chairman stressed for coordination to other concerned department to evolve integrated data mechanism for completion of PBS data system.

Senator Engr. Rukhsana Zuberi was of the view that the data available with the Ministry is compromised, which is a serious issue. She stressed the need for the development of a portal access to which would be available to all stakeholders. Senator Asad Ali Khan Junejo endorsed Senator Engr. Rukhsana Zuberi's suggestion and said that development of the portal would improve working speed. He however, stressed the need for the development of proper software and suggested that the Ministry must prepare a working paper and must give recommendations on how they plan to take things forward. The Chairman of the Committee directed that the Chambers of Commerce of all provinces must be summoned in the next meeting along with provincial mineral secretaries and concerned officials from the Ministry of Law.The FBR and the Finance Department may be summoned after that, he said. He further directed the Ministry to submit a road map on the way forward within a week.The meeting was attended by Senators Dr. Asif Kirmani, Engr. Rukhsana Zuberi, Nighat Mirza, Asad Ali Khan Junejo and senior officers from the Ministry of Statistics.