ISLAMABAD: The Voice of Christians International has sought direction from the Supreme Court seized with a case relating to minority rights to allow it to conduct a census of Christians on its own as it believes that the results of the 1998 census in the country are flawed.

Samuel Makson, the director for human rights of the Voice of Christians International, claimed in an application submitted to the Supreme Court that the figures of Christians mentioned in report of the 1998 census was incorrect.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk is hearing a case relating to the implementation of a June 19 judgment on minority rights.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has already approved constitution of a National Commission for Minorities to inculcate religious tolerance and harmony in the country, but so far its chairman has not been appointed.

Elaborating on his claims, the applicant cited the example of Clarkabad Khurd in Kasur district, an area dominated by Christians. The census report said that 3,883 of the 4,628 inhabitants of the area were Christians whereas 745 were Muslims. But, a pilot-project census carried out privately in the area in October this year showed that there were only 36 Muslims in the area and the rest of the people were Christians.

Similarly, the census of 1993 had suggested that Clarkabad Kalan village had a population of 14,745, of which 10,038 were Muslims and the rest Christians. But the pilot project this year showed that there were only 600 Muslims in the area and the rest were Christians.

The last census in Pakistan was carried out in 1998 which many believe was not only disputed but stood grossly outdated after the passage of 15 years because the population of the country has grown at a rate of 2.3 per cent per annum. The demography of many cities has also substantially changed during the period.

The applicant argues that the census of Christians has never been done in the right manner and that his organisation should be granted permission to hold the census of Christians in the entire country out of their own resources and with the help of churches and Christian non-governmental organisations.

On Nov 22 the Election Commission of Pakistan had requested the federal government to hold population census across the country enabling it to carry out delimitation of national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies well before the next general elections.

A summary to this effect has already been sent to the prime minister with a request to place the matter before the Council of Common Interests for approval.

Mr Makson’s application further argued before the Supreme Court that dual vote — both direct as well as proportionate voting system — was an immediate need of minorities in Pakistan because they had allegedly been denied many rights. Electing their own representatives was the right of Christians but representatives handpicked by political parties as members of national and provincial assemblies and Senate never bothered to alleviate the problems the community was faced with.

Whenever a minority member was in need of help, s(he) was discouraged from approaching Christian lawmakers since he or she was not directly elected by the community.

The applicant lamented that blasphemy laws were still being misused to the disadvantage of the minority community which eventually led to gory incidents like the Kot Radha Kishan tragedy in which a Christian couple was lynched over alleged blasphemy charges.

The application also lamented that the minorities’ places of worship had still not been provided with proper security in violation of the June 19 judgment.

Also, marriages of Christians were still not being registered with Nadra, the application said.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2014