Govt sets up dept to address minorities’ issues

MNA says some religious sites of minorities still illegally occupied

Sindh government has set up a separate department to address the problems of the minorities, said Sindh chief secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah on Tuesday. He also stated that the provincial government had issued the notification to pay the salaries of Hindu employees in advance ahead of Diwali.

He and Dr Shoaib Suddle, who is a member of the one-member commission on human rights formed by the Supreme Court, headed a meeting, which was attended by the Sindh minority affairs secretary, MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar, police and others. Commissioners and deputy commissioners joined the session via video link.

The meeting reviewed the implementation of the Supreme Court's orders regarding the removal of encroachments and illegal occupation from the properties and religious sites of minorities.

The commissioners briefed the meeting about it and claimed that the encroachment from minorities' properties had been cleared.

Dr Suddle told the meeting that a report regarding the properties of minorities would be submitted to the Supreme Court. He directed all commissioners to submit a report regarding encroachments on the properties of minorities within a day.

Minority Affairs secretary informed the participants of the meeting that the Evacuee Trust Property Board was not handed over to the provincial government even after the 18th Amendment and now they were going to present a bill on this matter in the provincial assembly.

Furthermore, the officials of the Sindh Education Department maintained that the provincial government had given representation to minorities in the curriculum development committee.

MNA Kumar lauded the efforts of the authorities in the province and maintained that numerous problems of minorities had been resolved but still there were illegal occupations on some of the minorities' religious sites.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2020.