PBS under fire for not using new forms
SC upholds high court order to count disabled, transgender persons.
Accompanied by a military soldier, an official from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics marks a house in the provincial capital. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD:
Upholding the Lahore High Court order, the apex court on Thursday directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PSB) to count disabled and transgender persons in the ongoing national population census.
The court also directed PBS to implement the Lahore High Court order passed on March 15.
The LHC had directed the bureau to ensure that the population census includes a special column relating to persons with disabilities along with their categories.
The high court had maintained that the code/number can easily be inserted in the machine readable form with a slight modification in the software and the column pertaining to ‘sex’ would now include ‘sex/disability’.
This mechanism would help to collect information regarding the persons with disabilities, as well as their gender, the LHC order had said.
The Census Commissioner PBS informed the apex court that field staff have been ordered to include the code/number three for transgender, 4 for males with disability, 5 for females with disability and code/number 6 for transgender with disability in the Column No.3 of the census form.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heading a three-member bench, heard the petitions of six disabled persons on Thursday.
Raheel Kamran Sheikh, counsel for the petitioner, appeared before the bench and also supported the LHC verdict.
At the outset of the hearing, the chief justice inquired from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics chief what steps have been taken to include disabled persons in the census, questioning if the data for disabled persons would be collected.
PBS chief Asif Bajwa informed that Form 2A had already been printed in which details of disabled had been sought. He said that three months after the national population census, a green form will be used to collect the data of disabled persons.
To this, the chief justice remarked that all over the world data was collected in the census and there was no compulsion of green or pink forms.
The census commissioner informed the court that the services of armed forces were only available to PBS for 10 days. He added that owing to shortage of manpower and time all data could not be collected at one time.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked why had a column for transgender persons been included in the census form. In response, the commissioner said the court had given a judgment in this regard in 2012, while the forms were published in 2007.
The chief justice asked have new forms not been published in compliance with the court’s order.
He added that the PBS should have no objection if transgender and disabled persons are counted in the ongoing census. “But now your problem is that the forms have already been printed and now is the issue of audit”.
The chief justice said the census form should have been printed in accordance with the circumstances. If the new form had been printed then this issue would have never sprung up.
PBS chief Asif Bajwa said the data of disabled persons all over the country would be collected in September and October. After hearing the arguments, the bench disposed of the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2017.
Upholding the Lahore High Court order, the apex court on Thursday directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PSB) to count disabled and transgender persons in the ongoing national population census.
The court also directed PBS to implement the Lahore High Court order passed on March 15.
The LHC had directed the bureau to ensure that the population census includes a special column relating to persons with disabilities along with their categories.
The high court had maintained that the code/number can easily be inserted in the machine readable form with a slight modification in the software and the column pertaining to ‘sex’ would now include ‘sex/disability’.
This mechanism would help to collect information regarding the persons with disabilities, as well as their gender, the LHC order had said.
The Census Commissioner PBS informed the apex court that field staff have been ordered to include the code/number three for transgender, 4 for males with disability, 5 for females with disability and code/number 6 for transgender with disability in the Column No.3 of the census form.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heading a three-member bench, heard the petitions of six disabled persons on Thursday.
Raheel Kamran Sheikh, counsel for the petitioner, appeared before the bench and also supported the LHC verdict.
At the outset of the hearing, the chief justice inquired from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics chief what steps have been taken to include disabled persons in the census, questioning if the data for disabled persons would be collected.
PBS chief Asif Bajwa informed that Form 2A had already been printed in which details of disabled had been sought. He said that three months after the national population census, a green form will be used to collect the data of disabled persons.
To this, the chief justice remarked that all over the world data was collected in the census and there was no compulsion of green or pink forms.
The census commissioner informed the court that the services of armed forces were only available to PBS for 10 days. He added that owing to shortage of manpower and time all data could not be collected at one time.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked why had a column for transgender persons been included in the census form. In response, the commissioner said the court had given a judgment in this regard in 2012, while the forms were published in 2007.
The chief justice asked have new forms not been published in compliance with the court’s order.
He added that the PBS should have no objection if transgender and disabled persons are counted in the ongoing census. “But now your problem is that the forms have already been printed and now is the issue of audit”.
The chief justice said the census form should have been printed in accordance with the circumstances. If the new form had been printed then this issue would have never sprung up.
PBS chief Asif Bajwa said the data of disabled persons all over the country would be collected in September and October. After hearing the arguments, the bench disposed of the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2017.