September 7, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Saani28,1423

ISLAMABAD, Sept 6: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) will be created shortly after merger of the three separate departments, the Federal Bureau of Statistics, Commissioners of Population Census and Agricultural Census.

Attached to the Statistics Division of the Ministry of Finance, these departments are working separately in a manner that they often overlap and duplicate each other’s work resulting in waste of resources.

At present, a source told Dawn, the Population Census department conducts census after every ten years. During much of the time between two censuses, most of its staff has little, if any, work to do, while the Federal Bureau of Statistics runs short of hands in carrying out surveys on a variety of subjects.

In fact, some kind of survey is almost in progress all the time in the FBS.

With the establishment of PBS, the authorities stipulate, the services of all the personnel would become available for carrying out its functions.

The new organization, the blue-print of which now awaits the Finance Ministry’s approval, Mr Yusuf Kamal, Secretary, Statistics Division told Dawn, was likely to be created in two to three months.

With the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan as the model in his mind, he expected that the PBS would recruit talented professionals with merit being the supreme consideration.