The Governing Council (GC) of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Tuesday approved the re-basing of national accounts from (2005-06) to (2015-16) and trade indices from (1990-91) to (2017-18).

The meeting of the Council was held here under the Chairmanship of Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (PD&SI) Asad Umar.

Chief Statistician PBS, Dr Naeem Uz Zafar, briefed the forum about the agenda items to be discussed as well implementation status of decision made in 18th meeting of the GC. Secretary GC appraised about agenda item “Change of Base of National Accounts (CBNA) from (2005-06) to (2015-16)”.

While approving the re-basing of National Accounts, the Council decided that work on next rebasing may be initiated after Population Census-2022 and FY (2022-23) may be taken as base year for next rebasing of National Accounts.

During the meeting, GC briefed about the agenda item “Change of base of Trade Indices from (1990-1991) to (2017-18)”. The forum was informed about recommendations of technical committee of PBS regarding change of base of Trade Indices.

It was also brief that United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) has already commended the initiative taken by PBS and endorsed the proposed methodology of rebasing of Trade Statistics. The GC of PBS unanimously approved the change of base of Trade Indices from (1990-1991) to (2017-18).

Secretary, GC informed the forum that conduct of various census and surveys have been halted due to conduct of the 7th Population and Housing Census. It was decided by the GC to resume various census and surveys after the completion of the 7th Population & Housing Census- 2022.

The GC was also briefed about the results of Population & Housing Census 2017 as well as various activities of the 7th Population and Housing Census, the first ever “Digital Census” of Pakistan.

Dr Muhammad Iqbal and Dr Syed Muhammad Arif, members of GC, appreciated the initiative of PBS under which various sensitization workshops on Population and Housing Census conducted in all the provinces for Census Awareness. These workshops are important for involvement of stakeholders especially government organizations, researchers and data users from planning stage. Muhammad Sarwar Gondal, member (Support Services/RM) of PBS informed the participants that liaison with stakeholders will be continued till finalization of results and Data Dissemination stage.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan, Secretary PD&SI Abdul Aziz Uqaili, Chief Statistician, PBS Dr Naeem Uz Zafar, members and other relevant stakeholders.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on March 16, 2022.