The Scheduled Caste Rights Movement (SCRM) has urged the government to allot more seats for the minorities in the national and provincial assemblies according to their population.
Addressing a press conference on Monday at the Rahim Yar Khan Press Club, SCRM Chairman Ramesh Jaipal said there were 63,500 voters of the minority communities in Rahim Yar Khan that were deprived of their right of representation. Of these, 93 per cent are Hindus, Jaipal said.
The minorities would boycott the upcoming elections, he threatened, if their demand was not accepted.
In his speech, he lauded the government’s increasing National Assembly seats from 10 to 14, Sindh Assembly’s from nine to 12, Punjab Assembly’s from eight to 10 and an increase of four seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies. He termed it “a good sign” and “a positive step” towards interfaith harmony.
Jaipal also cited figures from a research he said he had conducted. As of July 2012, of the 272 National Assembly constituencies, 98 had more than 10,000 registered minority voters.
Thirty-six of every 1,000 voters in the country were minority voters. In the Rahim Yar Khan district, there were 11,000 minority voters in NA-193; 2,000 in NA-194; 8,000 in NA-195; 21,500 in NA-196; and 14,000 in NA-197.
“It is regrettable that though in such huge numbers, the minorities are still deprived of [fair] representation.”
Talking specifically about Hindus, minority leader Bhaya Ram Anjum said that the lack of political representation was causing socio-political problems for them.
He said that in 2002, the number of registered minority voters in the south Punjab had been 191,000, adding that by now it would have increased.
“Many MNAs and MPAs are in the assemblies because of minority voters. But they forget this the minute they become ministers.”
Former MPA Baksha Ram urged political parties to give representation to the minorities because the Muslim majority was not the only group who voted. Former district counsel member Kanji Ram said it was against democracy that minorities were neglected. Later, some 50 or more people, including SCRM leaders, gathered in front of the Press Club and staged a peaceful demonstration to demand an increase in minority representation in the assemblies. They also protested against the recent desecration of graveyard in Chak 147-P and demanded the district coordination officer and district police officer take strict action against those involved.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th, 2012.
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