NA question hour: Government censured over minorities’ tiny budget

Minister says govt have no plans to earmark funds as it is now a provincial matter.

ISLAMABAD:

Lawmakers on Friday heaped scorn at the government after one of its representatives declared that a meagre sum of Rs47.7 was allocated for each minority citizen of the country.

According to the details, the government has allocated Rs161.1 million in the current fiscal year in terms of financial assistance of around 10 million minorities. The revelation was made by Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Minister Sardar Yousaf Khan during the National Assembly question hour session. The minister rankled lawmakers further when he said that that the government did not have “more money to allocate for minorities this year”.



Following this, lawmakers representing minorities, protested over drastically slashing their funds worth millions of rupees.

“It’s unfair and absolutely discriminatory with us [minorities],” observed MNA Lal Chand of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP). He scandalised his fellow legislatures by telling them that the government had allocated Rs3.37 million under various financial schemes for minorities.



In response to his protest, Yousaf Khan said: “We don’t have any further plans to allocated additional funds for them [minorities]. It’s a provincial matter now.”

The previous government had allocated an estimated Rs397.3 million for minorities in its annual budgets. The incumbent government slashed Rs40 million in terms of development funds, the religious affairs ministry told lawmakers in its reply.



“Not a single rupee was allocated for development funds for minorities in 2011-12,” the reply added.

The PPP had allocated an additional Rs147 million for 137 schemes for welfare of minorities in 2008-09. The current government allocated Rs25 million for development funds under special assistance programme of minorities community while the previous government had allocated Rs156 million in 2010-11.

The reply added that the government did not allocated the amount for special grants while the previous government allocated Rs33.3 million last year.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai denounced the funding cut.

“We’ve forgotten our minorities. It’s the worst kind of discrimination. They are the face of our multicultural society,” he remarked, adding that it was shocking that the government had allocated an amount even less than what could be spent on two Land Cruiser vehicles.

PPP MNA Ramesh Lal criticised the government for not allocating the promised Rs20 million, in assistance to the Hindu community for celebrating Diwali, to which the religious affairs minister said the proposal will be considered if minority representatives submitted it in writing.

Ramesh Lal also complained about rooms not being available for Sikh pilgrims who visited Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib and other places of worship. The minister in response to this complaint informed the lawmakers that there was a proposal to construct 30 more rooms in the premises of Nankana Sahib to fulfill demands of rooms for ‘yatrees’, particularly for those who came from India every year.

In response to another question posed by PPP MNA Nafisa Shah about the fresh allocation for minorities’ worship places in the country, the minister said an amount was yet to be specified for this purpose.

Meanwhile, during the assembly’s proceedings Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali came under fire, when several lawmakers from opposition benches questioned his behavior in answering questions asked on a point of order or during the question answer session.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2013.