Exercise on to determine number of Hindus in Pakistan

Lahore, Sep 24 (IANS) As a result of a campaign by the Hindu community in Pakistan, an exercise has started at a non-governmental level to identify Hindus in the country, according to a Pakistani media report on Tuesday.

The All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat has started collecting data of Hindus residing in the country. The organisation has issued a directive to all its units to collect eleborated data of Hindu families residing in their territories, the report said.

This record will be handed over to the federal government to match it with the voters' list and census data.

The All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat General Secretary Ravi Dawani has confirmed that their outfit is collecting data of Hindu families in Pakistan taking the help of all Hindu Panchayats in the country.

He said: "The purpose of this initiative is identifying exact number of Hindus in the country and give this data to the federal government so that any future scheme for Hindus should be introduced keeping this number in mind. Also, we can talk about the representation of the Hindu community in the state Assemblies".

The report, quoting sources, said the Hindu community has a question about the counting of votes in the country. The leaders say that some Hindu families in the country are hiding their identities citing safety concerns and they have also named themselves as non-Hindus.

"We cannot say anything about this doubt of Hindus but it is true that information about Hindus in government records is incorrect and it need to be rectified," Dawani said.