ISLAMABAD : Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting to review the progress of the ongoing activities of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) including preparation made by the bureau for holding of the 6th Population and Housing Census in the country.

The minister expressed satisfaction on the preparation made by the civilian side for the conduct of census. He directed that the Statistics Division had to keep a close coordination with the armed forces to ensure security and credibility in the census operation.  Earlier, the chief statistician gave detailed briefing on the preparation made for holding census. He also apprised that necessary steps on the civilian side had been completed including release of funds for making logistic arrangements, procurement of hardware and appointment of field staff for census operation. Chief statistician briefed the meeting that the PBS had launched integrated agriculture census as a pilot project on electronic data collection using android technology, which was a great shift from paper survey to electronic data processing.

He also stated that PBS was also launching census for manufacturing industries.