Parties asked to let minorities contest on general seats

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar on minorities’ rights expressed concern over lesser number of seats for non-Muslim Pakistanis and demanded the political parties to let the minorities contest elections on general seats on their party tickets.

The seminar titled “Provincial Consultation on the Rights of Religious Minorities” was organised by the National Commission for Justice and Peace, in collaboration with South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK) at a local hotel on Saturday.

The participants discussed minorities’ rights and their quota in the upcoming general elections.

Those whose spoke on the occasion included Hashim Raza advocate, Arshad Haroon, Sikander Zaman, Kashif Aslam, Qamar Naseem and representatives from different civil society organisations while political figures from various political parties did not attend the meeting due to the terrorist attacks that took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

As among the 272 general seats, at least on 82 seats, the vote difference is hardly 10,000, hence, in the constituencies where the minority votes are 10000 or more like NA-125, they can play a vital role for the candidates, they added.

Hashim Raza advocate said that if the political parties gave tickets to the minorities’ candidates on general seats, they could be winners for the political parties.

A candidate from Sikh community on PK-75 constituency Radesh Singh Tony demanded that reserved seats for minorities should be increased to six from three, ie two for Christians, one Hindu and one for Sikh community respectively while two for non-Muslims from the recently merged tribal districts.