PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to include Sikhism in the religion column of census form during the second phase of countrywide population and housing census.

The PHC bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan accepted the plea made by a member of the PBS Census Committee, Habibullah Khattak, that it won’t be possible for the government to include Sikh religion in the census form during the ongoing first phase of the population census in the country. The bench directed that it would not touch the first phase of the census, but they should ensure that Sikhism was included in the census form for the second phase starting from April 25.

The court issued the orders in a writ petition jointly filed by six members of the Sikh community against no mention of their religion in the census form, insisting the step was a violation of their religious rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

The petitioners, including Charanjeet Singh, Gurpal Singh, Radesh Tony and others, said that Sikhism was the fourth largest religion in Pakistan with around 100,000 followers, who were loyal citizens. They said that there was no mention of Sikhism in the census form’s column seeking information about religion of a person and that those mentioned there were Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Qadiani (Ahmedi), scheduled caste and others only.

The respondents in the petition included the federal government through the interior ministry, chief statistician and chief census commissioner, Islamabad, and provincial census commissioner.

When the bench asked member census Habibullah Khattak why Sikh religion was not included in the census form, the official stated that Sikh religion was mentioned in the 1981 census, but there was no mention of it in the form for subsequent population census in 1998. He added that members of the Sikh community were included in the section meant for other religions.

The chief justice observed that the Constitution guaranteed equal rights to religious minorities. He observed that it was the right of the petitioners that their population in the country should be counted properly.

Mr Khattak stated that the first phase of the census had started in 63 districts on March 15 and would continue till April 15. Subsequently, he added that in the second phase population and housing count would be carried out in the remaining 87 districts across the country from April 25. The official said that as counting had already been done in several of the areas it would be difficult for them to make changes in the census form.

When the bench inquired from the petitioners’ counsel, Shahid Raza Malik, why they approached the court with much delay as the census process had already started, he contended that the government had not made public the census form before the commencement of the house and population count and they only came to know about it when the counting had started in different areas.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2017