SHC issues notice to Federal, Sindh govts over census for April 3

KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices to Federal and Sindh governments on Friday to respond on April 3 on a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) petition challenging the procedure of the ongoing population census.

A division bench of the SHC hearing the petition heard PPP counsel Farooq H. Naek’s plea that the procedure adopted for the census was designed to show that the population of Sindh was less than it actually was.

He contended that the procedure was in violation of Article 2, 4 and 19 of the constitution. The court inquired from the PPP counsel whether the matter was of a dispute between the centre and Sindh province.

Naek replied in negative, saying that the matter was not about dispute between Sindh and centre. He informed the court that the PPP had challenged the criteria to keep the information about the census secret.

He submitted that the procedure adopted for the census was not fair nor transparent, he alleged that an attempt was being made to show the population of the old inhabitants of the province less.

The court while directing Naek to advance arguments on the maintainability of the petition on the next date of hearing issued notices to federal and Sindh government for April 3 to respond to the petition.

It is mentioned here that Secretary General PPPP Farhatullah Baber had filed the petition challenging the procedures put in place during the ongoing census, and pleaded the court to direct the government to disclose all data collected during the process.

The petitioner named federal government, as well as other parties, as respondents.

Source: The Nation