Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Thursday informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that all the provinces are represented in the Governing Council of PBS after the inclusion of members from Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Balochistan. The meeting of the committee chaired by Saleem Mandviwala was told that federal government constitutes the governing council with at least seven members; however, it can also increase or decrease the number of members.
Minister for Finance will be the ex-officio Chairman of the Governing Council, Secretary, Statistics Division, Chief Statistician of the Bureau and four members to be appointed by the federal government from private sector and Chief Statistician will act as Secretary of the Governing Council.
The above cited composition indicates that out of six non ex-officio members, Dr Muhammad Nizamud Din is from Punjab, Dr Syed Muhammad Arif is from Balochistan, Dr Muhammad Iqbal is from Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and three are from Sindh. The above cited composition indicates that all the provinces have been represented in the Governing Council of PBS although there is no binding in the Act, to observe provincial/regional quota as it is a technical organisation and requires highly qualified professionals in their fields to provide guidance on improvement of existing data collection procedures.
As far as conducting census was concerned, the meeting was informed that the plans for conducting census are prepared by federal government and executed by the provincial governments.
The provincial chief secretaries, being provincial heads, play a vital role in implementing the census plans prepared by the Federal Government. Mobilisation of all resources in the province to ensure credible and transparent census within the province, nomination of focal person for effective co-ordination among federal government and provincial government departments is the responsibility of the chief secretary, the meeting was told.
Provincial co-ordination committee is formed in the province chaired by Chief Secretary to supervise Population and Housing Census Operation in the province. Formation of Divisional/District level Co-ordination Committees and Vigilance Teams are also made to ensure availability of required field staff, formation of batches for trainings, availability of training venues, distribution of material to field staff and safe retrieval of filled in documents after census operation is over.
Census field staffs are drawn from the Provincial Government Departments who are fully aware about the area and population living there. Provincial Governments will establish Control Rooms at Provincial/Divisional and District headquarters level to receive complaints regarding under/over coverage, ensure complete coverage and; these governments would be required to initiate actions for quick remedy of complaints being received. Divisional Commissioner is the Divisional Census Co-ordinator and also Chairman, Divisional Census Co-ordination Committee.
The meeting was informed that the PBS has made all preparations and required funds were also provided but as decided by the Council of Common Interests (CCI), census would be conducted with the help of armed forces to ensure transparency; however, the required personnel were not available due to security situations.