PPP moves SHC for transparency in census

Author: Yousaf Katpar

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has approached the Sindh High Court against what it says ‘lack of transparency’ in the procedure of the ongoing census.

The PPP leaders, Farhatullah Babar and leader Maula Bux Chandio, filed the petition seeking directives for the authorities concerned for carrying out census in a transparent manner.

The petitioners named secretary statistic division, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, provincial census commissioner for Sindh and Sindh chief secretary as respondents.

In the petition, they 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.”

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 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.

He added that 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.

He said 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.

Babar prayed to the court to direct authorities to conduct the census in line with international standards and norms.

He 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.