As a citizen, I appeal to honourble chief justice of Sindh High Court to take suo-motu notice of this state of affairs
KARACHI: In September 2009, two Karachi citizens filed an appeal in the Sindh High Court against the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Karachi stating that the DHA be asked to remove the requirement of declaring religion and sect from its application forms for allotment of plots in DHA City, Karachi. The citizens pleaded that this was a totally irrelevant piece of information for the purpose of allotment of plots. Any Pakistani citizen should be able to apply for a plot regardless of his/her religion or sect. While this might not necessarily be the case, by making it obligatory for citizens to declare their sect and religion, the DHA appeared to be taking plot allocation decisions on the basis of an individual being ‘Sunni’, ‘Shia’, ‘Christian’, ‘Ahmadi’ or ‘Hindu’. Such acts could only be perceived as being discriminatory and acting to promote religious discord and sectarianism amongst citizens.
The Sindh High Court upheld the appeal and in its judgment of September 3, 2009, ordered that the respondent, i.e., the DHA that it should score off column nine, which required the disclosure of religion and sect. The DHA confirmed that it would comply with the court’s orders. Five years down the road, one, however, finds the DHA reverting to its obsession for incorporating sect and religion into purely commercial practices. It continues to have the superfluous columns of ‘domicile’, ‘religion’ and ‘sect’ in its currently used membership application forms. By doing so, it forces citizens to declare what is not even remotely the business of DHA. Demanding more of such declarations only promotes divisions and differences amongst citizens. For a country fighting a war of survival because of such splits, it is surprising that the DHA should continue to remain so mindlessly fussy about knowing the faith of its customers.
As a citizen, I appeal to the honourble chief justice of the Sindh High Court to take suo-motu notice of this state of affairs and ask the DHA to remove the requirement for declaring ‘sect’, ‘domicile’ or ‘religion’ from all DHA documents.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2015.
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