Minorities seek bigger job quota

PESHAWAR: Minorities in the Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa called on Sunday for increasing job quota, raising it from three per cent to five per cent and ADP allocations.

This was agreed at the first minorities’ youth conference held here at Nishtar Hall. The gathering was organised by the Provincial Youth Assembly for discussing problems faced by religious minorities in the province and Fata.

Panelists included Bishop Humphrey Sarfraz Peter, Haroon Sarbdiyal of the Hindu faith, Charan Jeet Singh of Sikh denomination and a Muslim scholar Maulana Maqsood Salfi. Ravi Kumar, the coordinator to the chief minister, was the chief guest on the occasion.

Presenting a charter of demands, Haroon Sarbdiyal appealed the provincial government to increase the job quota from three percent to five percent, besides calling for increasing funds set aside in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for minorities. He also demanded setting up more places of worship for religious minorities in K-P and Fata.

He said that the province’s youth should be given greater opportunities to represent the country on national and international level for addressing the issues of minorities.

Stressing the need for peace and inter-faith harmony, Bishop Humphrey Sarfraz Peter said that these measures were needed to curb extremism in society.

He criticised representatives of minorities in the Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for not attending the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2016.