Sikhism to be included in census form

Community welcomes Peshawar High Court ruling on divisive issue

The Sikh community of Pakistan has welcomed the ruling of Peshawar High Court to include Sikhism in the religion section of Pakistan’s national census 2017 form.

The provincial Peshawar High Court (PHC) directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on March 22 to include the Sikhism section in the census after petitions and protests across the country.

Pakistani Sikhs filed petitions in the Peshawar and Sindh High Court, requesting to include their religion along with other religious minorities in the census form. They insisted that the absence of their religion is a violation of the religious rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

The petitioners, including Charanjeet Singh, Gurpal Singh, Radesh Tony, stressed that Sikhism was the fourth largest religion of Pakistan with around 100,000 followers, who were sincere and loyal Pakistani citizens.

They highlighted that the origin of Sikhism was in Pakistan and that its founder, Baba Guru Nanak, was born in Punjab. Moreover, Sikhs from all over the world regularly visit their religious places located in Pakistan, making Pakistan a sacred place for the Sikh community.

Radesh Singh Toney, the chairman of Peshawar chapter of Sikh Community of Pakistan, said that Article 25 of the Constitution stated that all citizens were equal in the eyes of the law.

Protests held

Earlier, the members of Sikh community held a protest demonstration against the federal government and appealed to Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan to solve the issue.

Heeding the call of the petitioners, the Peshawar High Court ruling was announced by a two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan to include Sikhism in census.

The court, however, accepted the plea by PBS Census Committee that it won’t be possible for the government to include Sikh religion during the ongoing first phase of census. The first phase of the census began in 63 districts on March 15 and would continue till April 15.

Pakistan’s provincial court ordered that the necessary amendments to the form should be made in the second phase of the census starting from April 25.

Pakistan launched a countrywide census on 15 March 2017, the first in nearly two decades. Pakistan, with about 200 million people, is the world’s sixth most populous country. section