KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Monday approached the Sindh High Court against “lack of transparency” in the procedure of the ongoing census.

The party filed the constitutional petition through PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar and information secretary Maula Bux Chandio, who impleaded the federal government through the statistics division secretary, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics through its chief statistician/chief census commissioner, provincial census commissioner and Sindh chief secretary as respondents.

The petitioner asked the court to engage public participation in the process of enumeration and census and appoint ‘neutral and impartial’ enumerators. It was demanded that data be collected only from adult members of the family and proper receipts issued.

The petitioner asked the court to direct the respondent to conduct enumeration on the basis of those who were Pakistanis, including bona fide residents of the province of Sindh.

The party requested the court to order the respondents to separately count illegal immigrants and IDPs in the province.

It was further prayed that if any house or member of the family was left out from counting during the process of census, effective mechanism be adopted to ensure timely resolution of complaints.

The petitioner said that residents should have access to the data collected in order to recheck if the census enumerator concerned had correctly mentioned the information as provided, and there should be a system to resolve grievances if wrong information has been inserted in Form II or in the data collected.

Other prayers included: method be evolved to curb double or triple registration in more than one area; respondents to carry out entire exercise of census in transparent manner and to provide complete access on data collection; online complaint stations may be established by the respondents for the resolution of the above said issue.

The petitioner said Article 19-A of the Constitution provided for the basic right of access to information while adding that assistant commissioners who have been notified as census district officers should maintain record of data in their respective offices and the same should be accessible to the public at large.

The petition is likely to come up for preliminary hearing within a couple of days.

Verdict reserved on Dr Asim’s bail plea

Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar, the referee judge appointed to decide the bail plea of Dr Asim Hussain, a PPP leader and close aide of former president Asif Zardari, reserved his verdict.

The verdict, reserved after the conclusion of final arguments by the defence and prosecution, would be pronounced on a date to be fixed by the court’s office later.

The prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau vehemently opposed the bail plea, arguing that the PPP leader did not make a case for bail on medical grounds since he was admitted to a hospital where he was being provided proper treatment.

Besides, he contended that it was settled in the verdicts of the apex court that the referee judge could not hear arguments afresh.

He requested the judge to dismiss the bail applications.

Dr Asim is facing corruption charges for allegedly depriving the public exchequer of Rs462 million by misusing his authority to get land allotted illegally, encroaching upon state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital, money laundering and receiving kickbacks.

The PPP leader, who has been behind bars since Aug 8, 2015, had filed the applications through his counsel seeking bail in the cases.

The bail applications of Dr Asim were referred to a referee judge for disposal after the two-member bench of Sindh High Court could not reach a consenting order.

Other accused facing charges in the case are former petroleum secretary Mohammad Ejaz Chaudhry, administrator of Ziauddin Medical Centre, Dubai, Abdul Hameed, former directors of the Karachi Development Authority Syed Athar Hussain and Masood Haider and Karachi Dock Labour Board’s former chief executive officer Safdar Hussain.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2017