ISLAMABAD, March 16: The Supreme Court has ordered the federal government and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to amend census forms to include persons with disabilities and transgender people in the headcount exercise which has commenced on Wednesday.
Three-member bench of Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Ejazul Hasan conducted hearing of the case on Thursday.
The court directed the PBS to implement the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) decision in this regard, which has directed the bureau to include disabled persons in the ongoing census on Wednesday.
LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah observed that information regarding disability can be easily included in Form 2-A’s Column No3, which pertains to “sex”, by assigning codes for disabled male with 4, disabled female with 5, and transgender with 6.
The apex court expressed its displeasure that the PBS continued citing various issues for not counting disabled persons and transgenders after the census has already begun across the country.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nasir, who headed the bench hearing an appeal filed by a group of disabled citizens, asked PBS chief statistician Asif Bajwa what steps have been taken to include disabled people in the census.
Asif Bajwa responded that Form 2-A is being used in the current headcount exercise, while a separate ‘green form’ will be used to collect data about disabled and transgender people three months after the census is over.
When asked why the two forms are not being issued together, the official said all data cannot be collected in one go due to a “lack of manpower and time”. “You are listing all the impediments after the census has begun,” the chief justice remarked.
Bench member Justice Ijazul Hassan asked why the column for transgender people was missing from the census form.
Asif Bajwa, the PBS Chief Statistician, stated that the court has issued the order to include transgenders in the census in 2012, but the census forms had already been printed in 2007.
“Why were new forms not printed after the court order?” asked chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar. The chief justice regretted that forms have not been prepared according to current needs, stating: “If the census has to be conducted, you should have executed it in a proper manner.”
The court then ordered the PBS to include disabled and transgendered persons in the ongoing exercise and implement the high court’s order in this regard. The court also asked the bureau to run a media campaign regarding the inclusion of the two groups in the census. – Sabah
