ISLAMABAD - Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani has been elected as the chairman of the National Assembly standing committee on statistics.

He was elected unanimously by all Committee members representing different political parties. Dr Ramesh Vankwani, in his remarks, expressed his thanks and gratitude to all the members of the committee for electing him as chairman. He said that statistics play a pivotal role in every field of human activity from worship to business. Dr Ramesh said that today all governmental policies are based on statistics. "Statistical data is now widely used in making all kinds of high-level decisions," he said.

Terming statistics the science of learning from data and numbers, the new chairman urged all national governmental and non-governmental institutions to follow appropriate methods to produce trustworthy statistical results. "Our focus must be on asking our institutes to make sure that they are producing reliable data, analysing the data appropriately and drawing reasonable conclusions," he expressed.

Dr Ramesh Vankwani was of the view that knowledge of statistics also helps in determining the existing position of population growth rates, per capita income, unemployment, housing, schooling, medical facilities, number of holy places, and presence of various institutes, etc. Appreciating the vibrant role of media, the newly-elected chairman also urged the need for providing latest updated data to journalists for their news reports.

Dr Ramesh Vankwani also vowed to play his due role in addressing complaints of bogus data in various presentations by some elements with vested interests. "The statistical data must be presented as accurately and objectively as possible," he concluded.