Considerable discrepancy on the exact volume of Saudi investment has emerged between government ministers and the Chairman Board of Investment (BoI) during the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) starting today. BoI released a press statement claiming that "the potential volume of investment from Saudi Arabia is more than 20 billion dollars in the next few years." Disturbingly, the BoI Chairman disowned this figure in an aside to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi prompting the latter to inform the media that "the BoI chairman is here but he is not going to own the figure issued by his department." The Chairman therefore is guilty of either purposely overstating the figure or being unaware of the contents of the press release issued by BoI - both conditions requiring a clarification from him.
Needless to add, Shah Mehmud Qureshi has been personally engaged with Saudi authorities as the Foreign Minister in the PTI government, unlike the BoI Chairman, and was in the best position to respond to the query by Business Recorder on the accuracy of the claim made in the BoI press release.
Data discrepancy has also been the hallmark of previous administrations. Shaukat Aziz during the Musharraf years was accused of gross manipulation of data while Dr Hafeez Sheikh of the PPP-led coalition government reduced the weightage of food by 6 percent in calculating the consumer price index thereby reducing the rate of inflation significantly. Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was also accused of blatant data manipulation with the objective of showing a better performance of the economy than was in fact the case. Such an approach is not only dishonest but compromises the government's ability to deal promptly with emerging issues.
Business Recorder is on record as urging Pakistani administrations, including the incumbent, to ensure data integrity as a means to deal with issues as they arise. This requires de-linking the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) from the Ministry of Finance and making it report directly to the Prime Minister as well as taking stern actions against those who purposely try to mislead the people and/or the cabinet with the objective of currying favour with the leadership. Another example is the PBS informing the cabinet that the first six months of the PML-N government witnessed a rate of inflation in excess of 6.5 percent while during the first six months of the current government prices rose by a mere 1.4 percent - a claim not backed by corroborating data and not responded to when asked for clarification by BR.
To conclude, it is critical for the Prime Minister as well as his bevy of ministers to ensure that data integrity is ensured and strict action must be taken against those who try to mislead the government.