Minorities' identification: Replies sought from Centre, PBS, Nadra.

LAHORE -- The Lahore High Court on Wednesday sought replies from the federal government, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and the Nadra on a petition seeking categorisation and identification of all religious minorities in the upcoming census.

Centre for Social Justice, a non-profit organisation working for human rights and social issues, filed the petition.

On behalf of the petitioner, Advocate Saqib Jilani contended before the court that the question involved in the case is whether the failure of the PBS to count and categorise all religious minorities would affect their fundamental rights.

He said as per the current framework, the known categories of religions to be counted in the census are Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, scheduled castes, Buddhists, Parsis and Sikhs. He argued that the existing framework unfortunately ignores a rich and vibrant religious diversity in Pakistan, including Bahai, Judaism, Chinese, African ethnic, Kalasha, Atheism, Shintoism, Spiritism, Jainism and Taoism.

The counsel said as per the Nadra's source, there are hundreds of followers of these religions, however, they are...