ISLAMABAD: Civil society representatives and minorities’ rights activists staged a demonstration in front of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday against the inordinate delay in the release of results of the sixth census of minorities and disabled persons.

The participants expressed concern over the unnecessary delay and said the criminal silence of the PBS was infuriating the minorities. They said the government in general and the PBS officials in particular had been ignoring repeated demands of the rights activists.

Pattan Development Organisation National Coordinator Sarwar Bari set a week’s deadline for the announcement of results by the PBS, and announced that protest camps would be set up across the country if the deadline was not met. He said rallies would be taken out and a token hunger strike observed in front of PBS office.

“We must not allow the government to treat her citizens differently and discriminately. By hiding census results of minorities the government is violating the Constitution. The Election Commission of Pakistan is conducting delimitation of constituencies for the forthcoming general elections in accordance with the sixth census results and according to the new law; the delimitation exercise must not violate homogeneity of the population,” he added.

Civil society representatives, minorities rights activists protest outside the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics office

Mr Bari said if delimitation officers are not aware of the population of minorities in each district, it is highly likely that they would violate the law while drawing boundaries of the constituencies.

William Pervez, a known playwright, said the government’s ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ attitude would keep minorities out of any future policy and project.

Lala Robin, who had specially come from Faislabad for the event, said: “Over the years our representation in legislative bodies has dropped. We have been denied the right to elect our representatives, our churches have been attacked, innocent people killed and now we have been eliminated from the census results. This is not acceptable.”

Vice chairman of a union council in Faislabad, Pervez Bhatti, said: “Very often minorities live in neglected and vulnerable areas; if I have a data of minorities in my area, I would serve them better.”

Another rights activist, Tahira Abdullah, condemned the attitude of PBS officials and demanded immediate release of the result of minorities’ population.

The event was jointly organised by the National Minority Alliance, Provincial Action Group of Minorities, Punjab, and Pattan Development Organisation.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2018