The story of a Pakistani Sikh

The enumerator hurried scribbled my details on a single-paged document. “Name? Identity Card number?” he asked in a sequence, and I replied in one.

“Religion?”

“Sikh,” I announced with much pride. But, that wasn’t what he wrote. Instead, he ticked a little box labelled, ‘Others.’ “Others?” I was taken aback. Taking the paper from him I examined it closely. There in bold was a box for Muslim, Hindu, Christian and Ahmadi and then there was one for ‘Others.’

“Where am I?” I asked.

“Here,” he said pointing to the column for ‘Others.’ My first instinct was to shut the door, return to my room, boycott the population census. But then, I thought about all the other Sikhs in Pakistan. This is the only way for us to know how many we are. And so reluctantly, I let the man log me in as an ‘Other.’

Throughout the day, I received calls from my friends and relatives, who live in Peshawar, Nankana, Lahore, parts of Sindh and Balochistan. This has to be a mistake, we agreed. The next day I wrote a letter from the Pakistan Sikh Council to Asif Bajwa, the chief census commissioner.

This was March. I have yet to hear back from him.

Desperate, we voiced our concern in the electronic and print media till the Sikh community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court. On March 21, the court ordered the provincial statistical department to include Sikhs in the ongoing population count. The second phase of the census has now commenced, but little has been done to implement the court orders.

It is tragic that officials are choosing to ignore us. For Sikhs, everywhere in the world, Pakistan holds tremendous importance. This country, this land, is as significant to us as the Holy Kaaba is to Muslims. The founder of our religion, Baba Guru Nanak Dev ji, was born here in a village of Nankana Sahib.

The founding father of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam, promised equal rights to all Pakistani citizens. I hope and pray we realise that beautiful dream.

The Sikhs in Pakistan are Pakistanis. No one can take that away from us. I plead you not to push us into invisibility in a land that means the most to us. Pakistan Zindabad!

Sardar Ramesh Singh Khalsa is the patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Sikh Council

Note: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author, and do not reflect the official policy or position of Geo News, The News or the Jang Group