Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) on Monday challenged the ongoing population census in the Sindh High Court (SHC). The petition filed by PPP leaders Farhatullah Babar and Maula Bux Chandio narrates secrecy in population census as unconstitutional.The petition was filed against the federal government, as well as other parties, over alleged irregularities in the census procedure.Farhatullah Babar said that access to information was basic right; however, several important categories of information have been labelled as confidential in the census.He said he feared the people would remain unaware of the data collected on them and all information would be sent to Islamabad. He added that all citizens should be provided with a copy of their information so they can tally the data at a later stage.Babar stated that there should also be a system to resolve the grievance of the public if any information given by them was wrongly mentioned in the Form -II. He also suggested the employment of neutral and impartial enumerators for engaging public participation in the census process. Besides, data should be collected from adult members of the family with a proper receipt.If any house or members of house was left out from counting during the census process, an effective mechanism should be formed to ensure timely resolution of complaints, he added.He said the Article 19-A of the Constitution of Pakistan provides for the basic right of access to information while adding that the assistant commissioners who have been notified as the census district officers should maintain a record of data in their respective offices and the same should be accessible to the public at large.The PPP leaders maintained that illegal immigrants and internally displaced persons should be counted separately in the province and the authorities should set up emergency complaint centre that should be accessible to the public where they can register their grievances regarding wrong, false and fabricated enumeration.They prayed to the court to direct authorities concerned to conduct the census in line with international standards and norms. He demanded of the authorities to immediately make the data of census process public so that the people could be aware of whether their house had been counted in the initial process of house counting process or not.It is deplorable that some political parties are trying to make Population Census controversial from the very beginning. Census exercise has just started and it would take several weeks to gather necessary data and then compiling it. As was done previously and is done the world over, outcome of the exercise is shared with general public. However, to demand that data should be shared from the word go is nothing but an attempt to scuttle the exercise itself. Census is very important exercise and it is being held after nineteen years. The federal and provincial government should work hard to ensure transparent and credible census. The tendency of making everything controversial including CPEC and Census is lamentable and all political parties should prefer national interests instead of advancing their vested interests.
