Pak Hindu community’s drive to find actual population

Lahore, Sep 24 (IANS) To ascertain the actual population of Hindus in Pakistan, the community has taken up the tedious task upon themselves and has started a drive across the country.

According to reports in Pakistani media, All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat has started the exhaustive exercise to get the records of all Hindus living in the country.

The Panchayat has issued directives to all its local units spread across various districts of Pakistan to collect the information of the Hindu families living there.

The record will be handed over to the federal government so that the electoral rolls and the census numbers could be matched.

This was confirmed by the secretary of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, Ravi Davani.

"We are collecting information about Hindu families living in various districts of Pakistan. We are taking the help of local units of Hindu panchayats in the districts," said Davani.

"The main purpose of the exercise is to find out the exact number of Hindus in Pakistan and share the record with the federal government so that it can take into account the Hindu population while formulating policies for them," Davani added.

Apart from this, the exercise also aims to increase the number of Hindu representatives in the state assemblies, Davani further said.

The report in Pakistani media said that there is some confusion among the Hindu community about the electoral rolls because in many parts, Hindus have withheld their identity for security reasons. They have even re-christened themselves as a non-Hindu to camouflage the identity.

Davani said that he does not wish to comment on the community's apprehensions behind hiding the identity, but it is imperative that actual figures of the Hindu population should go to the government for correct policy formulation.