KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday adjourned hearing of a petition by Pakistan People’s Party challenging procedure adopted for housing and population census. A bench of SHC adjourned the hearing after PPP’s counsel Farooq H Naek did not appear before the court. When the court resumed hearing, it was told that the petitioner counsel was busy in Islamabad so he could not appear before the court. Upon this the court adjourned further hearing of the case till September 21st , 2017. PPP had moved to SHC against lack of transparency in now concluded national census. The PPP had argued that the census exercise of the national census was not being carried out in the province in a transparent manner, as non-locals were being counted as locals, which was against the constitutional provisions. The petition stated that it was being done under a conspiracy to show the number of Sindh residents less than the actual strength. The PPP had argued that since there was a lack of transparency in the census exercise, it should be made transparent and impartial enumerators should be appointed to carry out the task. “House listing was not completely done in the first phase of the census exercise, which should be completed. Every citizen should be provided a copy of the information which the enumerators obtain door-to-door so that they also know what information is being obtained,” the petitioner argued. The petitioner had urged the court to order public should be given free access to the process so that they could approach the authorities if any incorrect information was mistakenly given to the enumerators. The PPP had pleaded that the exercise should be made transparent. Published in Daily Times, August 22nd 2017.