Daily Times

KARACHI: As the sixth national housing and population census has entered the final phase the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)’s petition against ‘lack of transparency’ in the procedure of the census is bound to continue for unspecified period as the ruling party seems to have lost its interest in the case.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar adjourned the hearing till May 05 due to the absence of the petitioners’ lawyer Farooq H Naiq, who was reported to be busy before another bench.

On March 20, PPP through its leaders – Farhatullah Babar and Maula Bux Chandio, had instituted the petition seeking directives for the authorities concerned to carry out census in a transparent manner.

However, formal proceedings on the census plea have not yet started as the PPP lawyer is yet to satisfy the court over whether it was maintainable for hearing.

During previous hearing, the federal law officer had informed that the federal government had suggested forming a committee to deal with the grievance raised by the Sindh chief minister in his letter to the center. However, the provincial government had not responded yet.

He contended that the petition was not maintainable. The litigants should have approached the apex court under the law to have their grievance redressed, he added.

In the petition, the PPP leaders had submitted that the census was being carried out in a manner which lacked transparency. “To ensure transparency and make the public aware of the data collected about them, they should have access to it so that they could re-check and verify if the relevant census enumerator had correctly mentioned the information as provided by them.”

They 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.

The PPP leaders had suggested that neutral and impartial enumerators should be employed to engage public participation in the census process. Besides, data be collected from adult members of the family with proper receipt.

If any house or members of house had been left out from counting during the census process, effective mechanism be put in place to ensure timely resolution of complaints.

Their counsel contended that 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 petitioners prayed to the court to direct authorities to conduct the census in line with international standards and norms.

They pleaded that illegal immigrants and internal displace persons should be counted separately in the province and the authorities should set up emergency complaint centre accessible to the public where their grievances regarding wrong, false and fabricated enumeration may be addressed in an effective manner.

Meanwhile, the same bench extended its stay order against the removal of Inspector General of Police AD Khawaja till April 27 th .

It adjourned the hearing due to the absence of the petitioners’ counsel.

Earlier, Faisal Siddiqui, the petitioners’ lawyer, had forwarded his arguments over the provincial government’s powers to remove and appoint IG Sindh of its own choosing and enact laws that lie in the domain of federal government.

Advocate General Zameer Ghumro had apprised the judges of mechanism the provincial government had adopted for appointment of IG Sindh for over the years.

He contended that the provincial government had powers to appoint IG of its own choice. Invariably, the government recommends three police officers to the federal government to appointment one of them as IG Sindh, he added.

He said the provincial government enacted the Sindh (Repeal of the Police Order 2002 and Revival of the Police Act 1861) Act 2011, which was unconstitutional and aimed at subverting transparency and check-and-balance mechanism in the police department.

The PPP’s provincial government had suffered a setback on March 3 when the high court suspended its notification restoring AD Khawaja as IG Sindh and asking the new IG to relinquish the charge.

The court observed that the IG could be removed only after the cabinet endorses the decision as the apex court had held in its verdict that the provincial governments could exercise their statutory powers that are conferred on them through cabinet.

In the wake of court’s order, the Sindh government had summoned cabinet meeting which had endorsed the removal of AD Khawaja and appointment of additional IG Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti in his place.