Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has sought comments from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and other respondent authorities on a petition against absence of a separate column for counting Sikh community in the ongoing census. A two-judge bench directed the authorities concerned to file their replies on the petition filed by the representatives of the Sikh community till March 27. In the petition, it was stated that a separate box for counting Sikhs in the head-count was not included despite the fact that their population was over a lakh. However, the petitioners argued, there existed a separate column for other minorities, adding that the authorities’ not counting Sikh community separately in the headcount would cause a sense of deprivation among them. The court, therefore, was pleaded to issue directives for the PBS to incorporate a separate column for Sikh community in the form of the ongoing census.