Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Statistics on Friday emphasized the need for a powerful and independent Statistics Division to collect reliable data for economic policymaking and future planning.
A meeting of the committee chaired by Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini was met here to get a detailed briefing on the role and functions of Ministry of Statistics and its attached departments.
Senator Shabli Fraz said the role of Ministry of Statistics is very important but regretted that it is not functioning fully independently. However, the secretary of the ministry stated that she was also hearing about data manipulation but stated: "We have not received any kind of advisory since she joined PBS."
The committee was informed that Statistics Division was subordinate office of Ministry of Finance in 1973 and was made separate ministry by the Cabinet Division in August 2017. The secretary Ministry of Statistics stated that it provides technical and statistics support to the various departments.
The senators said data is the lifeline of any country; therefore, the reliability of the data is very important and every step should be made to make it credible and reliable.
The meeting was told that basic function of the ministry is to conduct census, household survey as well as various other surveys, including price survey and labour force survey. The Ministry of Statistics conducts survey as per provided mandate in the Act. The meeting was informed that Ministry of Statistics prepares every data that is required by the government.
The meeting was further told that budget of the ministry is Rs 2.2 billion. The committee decided to make recommendations in the next meeting for making improvement in the ministry, as the first meeting of the committee was aimed at knowing about the role and function of the ministry.