ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: A draft law to convert Federal Bureau of Statistics into Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has been prepared to further improve the efficiency of the organisation.

“No country can make progress without having authentic and reliable data and conversion of FBS into PBS would help achieve this objective by enhancing its efficiency and authenticity,” secretary statistics Tariq Shafiq Khan said here on Tuesday.

He said that the FBS, Agriculture Census Organisation and Population Census Organisation would be merged into one organisation of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

“A draft law in this regard has been sent to the ministry of law and justice to form a legislation to be approved by the parliament for the conversion of FBS into PBS soon,” he remarked.

Mr Khan set aside the impression that the data collected by the FBS was not accurate and authentic.

“The organisation collects statistics from different markets of thirty five cities and reliability and authenticity of its data is even acknowledged by the IMF and the State Bank of Pakistan.

Replying to a question, he said that the FBS annually organises 40 to 50 capacity-building and technical training courses for federal and provincial statistic organisations in collaboration with international organisations.

Through such training courses FBS wants to sharpen the skills of its staff in line with the international needs and requirement, he added.

The secretary statistics said that all the offices of the organisation would be computerised and made online to enable the stakeholders have real-time access to the required data. He said that the bureau plans to enhance its publication for the benefit of the masses.

To a question he said that the preparation to conduct the population census was in full-swing adding that the PSLM and labour force survey would be published next month. —APP