A petition has requested the Supreme Court of Pakistan to declare the results of the Balochistan’s census and their approval by the Council of Common Interests as illegal. The petition claims the results were underrerported by a massive seven million in the province.

The petition has been filed by Hassan Murtaza, son of JUI Senator Kamran Murtaza, and asks the court to appoint an impartial commission to scrutinize the results of the census.

The petition says that the results of the census in Balochistan were accurately and regularly reported until May 29. However, the final results were very different and lacked “transparency, fairness, and adherence to established norms”.

The petition says that the population of the province had shown to be 21.7 million in the preliminary results but was abruptly cut down to 14.89 million in the final count.

The petition puts the blame for the slashed count on the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, which is one of the respondents in the case.

“This is because despite sharing numerous timely updates (up until 29th May 2023) of the correct data in the Census 2023, the respondent chose to reduce the figures arbitrarily and dishonestly, without any comment or explanation,” the petition says.

The petition adds that final census is a clear result of ‘tampering’ aimed at denying the province its due rights. It adds accurate data collection and representation is one of the duties of the state.

“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,” the petition says.

The results of the census were approved days before the Pakistan Democratic Movement government left office in August.