PM advised to take Bajwa’s expertise to finalise census results

ISLAMABAD: The government has moved a summary to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for appointing Asif Bajwa as consultant/advisor to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) after completion of his terms to summarise results of 6th population and housing census, officials said on Saturday.

“The summary has been forwarded to the competent authority for appointing him as consultant/advisor to PBS till compilation of detailed census results,” an official told The News. 

“Bajwa may be appointed on this slot for the next nine months up to April 2018,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Bajwa had completed his term as chief statistician/chief census commissioner on July 4. Asif Bajwa is an elder brother of Tariq Bajwa who has been recently appointed as governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. His another brother Rashid Bajwa is currently serving as chief executive officer of National Rural Support Program.

The PBS has been currently running without chief statistician and secretary statistics, affecting the routine work. 

The provisional summary results for census are almost ready, but without having complete organisational structure it cannot be shared with the Prime Minister or Council of Common Interest.

There is another proposal to present another summary for seeking approval for giving acting charge of chief statistician to any existing member and the name of Member Administration Mehmood is under consideration, but he would be retiring after a few months. 

The process of appointing new chief statistician has already been underway as the applications were sought from candidates and short listing has already been completed.

Sources said due to incomplete organisational structure, some retired officials are allegedly using official vehicles to access to official data in violation of law and breach of data confidentiality.  

The sources said top appointments are necessary to make this dormant organisation fully functional at this stage when it is preparing provisional summary results of recently- accomplished census exercise.

PBS collected 50 million forms from field offices for the census and manual entry of census forms is almost complete for sharing provisional results.

The government set up central statistical office (CSO) in 1950 as an attached department of economic affairs division after Pakistan’s independence. Local and foreign consultants have periodically been reviewing the statistical system since then. 

In 1972, CSO was upgraded to a full-fledged statistics division on a recommendation of the World Bank. The division was re-organised in 1981 and its technical wing was converted into Federal Bureau of Statistics as one of its attached departments. 

Later, government has established PBS by merging Federal Bureau of Statistics, the Population Census Organization, Agriculture Census Organization and the technical wing of statistics division. PBS collects, compiles and analyses statistical data relating to various economic sectors.

The organisation ensures supply of statistical information to federal ministries, provincial governments and other organisations with a view of improving statistics. It exchanges statistics with foreign countries, imparts technical advice to other departments, evaluates computation methods, classifies national statistical series and implements policy in line with the national censuses and surveys.