SC moved against BHC ruling on census issue in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday challenging the verdict of Balochistan High Court (BHC) in a matter of census of 2023 in Balochistan.

Hassan Kamran filed an appeal in the apex court under Article 185(3) of the Constitution against the verdict passed by the BHC on August 29, 2023.

The petitioner has made the Federation of Pakistan through secretary, Cabinet Division, Council of Common Interests (CCI), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Chief Secretary Balochistan, National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) and Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) through its chairman as respondents.

The petitioner earlier had moved to the BHC over gross violation of fundamental rights of the people of Balochistan in the matter of census of 2023 by a forum having jurisdictional defects and questions and had sought protection of his rights along with the public of Balochistan.

The learned high court, however, had dismissed his petition for not being maintainable on the grounds that the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBAP) has challenged the decision of CCI before the Supreme Court.

The petitioner, however, contended in his appeal that the subject matter, grounds and his grievances in his petition were completely different from the SCBAP petition before this august court. The petitioner submitted that although the last reported figure of 2023 census by PBS was 21.7 million but to his utter shock and the public at large in Balochistan, the final result showed the population of Balochistan as only 14,894,402, i.e. a decrease of almost 7 million, which is about a third of the population, completely wiped out of the official record.

That discarding one third of the population data collected in Census 2023 for Balochistan only raises multiple questions on the transparency of census data shared by PBS, the petitioner submitted.

He contended that this overnight shift of data alarms the public of Balochistan and has deeply hurt the sentiments of public as PBS has made a mockery of this Census 2023 data for Balochistan. He stated that it is not just of chance that such data shift has happened and this scenario mimics dishonesty and blatant discrimination against the people of Balochistan. “This issue will have far greater implications and would extend far beyond census; it will also deprive the people of Balochistan from proper allocation of resources in the upcoming NFC Award”, he contended.

He submitted that in its impugned judgment dated 29.08.2023, the BHC also gave findings on the factual merits of the case while simultaneously dismissing the petition of petitioner on account of maintainability.

The petitioner submitted the BHC could not have dismissed his petition on account of maintainability and also give findings of factual merits of the case. He submitted that the issue was also raised in the Senate of Pakistan by senators with a walkout protest. He prayed the apex court to grant leave to appeal against judgment dated 29.08.2023 of the BHC.