Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said census data can be used for future planning to improve governance, promote business and strengthen economy. Addressing a news conference after visiting Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in Islamabad this afternoon, he said a Data-Fest will be organized in May this year, enabling the private and public sector, civil society, academia, federal and provincial governments to use the census data effectively. Expressing concerns on population growth ratio of 2.55 percent, the Minister urged the provincial governments to make their population control programmes more effective to curtail the rising trends of country's populace. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the data collected through 7th Population and Housing Census-2023 is a strategic resource for data driven policymaking. He said it is the time to get the benefits from the digital Population Census that was conducted last year and was approved unanimously. Source: Radio Pakistan