PHC moved against exclusion of Sikhism from census form

Petitioners claim there are 100,000 Sikhs in Pakistan

PESHAWAR: The Sikh community members hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to seek its direction to include Sikhism as a religion in the 2017 census form.

Gurpal Singh, Radesh, Gharanjeet Singh, Jatindar Singh and others from Peshawar and Mardan districts filed the petition through their lawyer Shahid Raza Malik. The petitioners, who are also members of Peshawar Singhs Saiwa Society, submitted that the religion of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Qadianis, Ahmadis, scheduled castes and others have been mentioned in the census form, but the Sikhs have been ignored. They pointed out that Sikhism is the fourth biggest religion in Pakistan with about 100,000 members but it has not been mentioned in the census form.

It was submitted that the Sikh community was protesting across the country after learning that they weren’t been mentioned as a religious community in the census form. It was argued that the Sikhs in Pakistan not been treated in accordance with the law. The petitioners said their rights are secured and guaranteed under the law, but these have been violated during the ongoing census.

The petitioners said every religion was mentioned in the census form except Sikhism, which is a religion recognized all over the world. They made the Federation through the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Chief Statistician through the commissioner Islamabad, and provincial census commissioner as parties in the petition.