ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: The news item carried in Dawn of Sept 25 with the headline “Poverty report suppressed for outcry fear”, is misleading. At no point has the government attempted to prevent making the facts public as they emerge, says a government press release.

Poverty reduction is the major concern of the government’s overall policy framework. Unless extent of the poverty is known, it would not be possible to address it properly.

A spokesman for the Statistics Division said: “Our aim is to provide credible data with a degree of accuracy and transparency on national issues. Data on poverty is to be placed in the public domain. This move is designed to enhance provision of timely information and technical support to the data users as well as to generate more analysis. The government is placing a great deal of emphasis on making more information public as never before.”

“The news item presumably refers to Pakistan Integrated Household Survey, 2001. The preliminary tabulation of this survey was completed by the Federal Bureau of Statistics in April 2002. As a normal practice, comments on preliminary findings of the survey were invited for technical corrections and consistency checks. Certain problems were found in the previous survey. It was found that poverty level in Balochistan was falling despite prolonged drought with the lowest poverty in this province as compared to other provinces.

Some definitional problems also emerged indicating too much variation in the results according to the definition used. In the light of the comments sought, the data is being cross-checked and refined and will be released as soon as this exercise is over. Thereafter, the factual position with regard to prevalence of poverty in the country will emerge,” the press release concluded.