PESHAWAR: The Minorities Alliance of Pakistan has demanded delimitation of their own constituencies and the right to elect their representatives through a vote.
Addressing a press conference in Peshawar on Saturday, the alliance chairman Akmal Bhatti said that in the current electoral system, political parties handpick representatives from minorities and make the lawmakers through reserved seats.
“We want to elect our own representatives. We don’t like selection of our representatives by the political parties,” said Bhatti, flanked by the alliance’s vice-chairman Shamoon Gill, KP president Saleem Gill and other office-bearers.
Bhatti said that the alliance was set up in the year 2002 and that it has representatives from religious minorities, including Sikhs, Hindus, Bhais and others from different parts of Pakistan.
He claimed that under the current system, the minorities vote for all Muslim candidates in the national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies but that they cannot elect their own representatives.
He said that since the 1973 Constitution was made in the country so far, minorities have 38 seats in the provincial and national assemblies and Senate of Pakistan.
Bhatti said: “Yes, we have representatives in assemblies, but they are selected by the political parties on reserved seats. We want to elect them through our vote, just like we vote for Muslim candidates in elections.”
He also demanded that the reserved seats for minorities should also be increased in view of the increasing population of the minorities in the country.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2017; Pakistan’s population compromises 96.28 percent Muslims, 15.9 percent Christians, 1.60 percent Hindus, 0.22 percent Qadianis, 0.25 percent scheduled castes and 0.07 percent others.
KP government spokesman and Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Shaukat Yousafzai told Arab News that delimitation of the minorities-only constituencies is not possible without a constitutional amendment.
“I am a lawmaker and I have completed a number of projects in Christian Colony in my constituency PK1. We have to serve all whether Muslims or minorities in our respective constituencies because we get elected through their vote,” Yousafzai added.
He also said that under the law, a minorities’ candidate can also contest on any constituency.
To a question about minorities’ only constituencies, he said: “It is not possible for the minorities to have delimitation of their own constituencies because for delimitation, a constituency needs to have at least a population of around 0.3 million, while minorities are scattered in different areas in KP.”
Former senator and member of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal council Maulana Gul Naseeb said that being Pakistani citizens, the minorities should be given the same right of electing their nominees to assemblies and separate delimitation of their own constituencies. However, he raised the same point that while minorities are scattered in different areas, it would be difficult for them to do separate delimitation of their constituencies.
Muhammad Isa Khan, an advocate and a Supreme Court lawyer, said that if the government wishes, an amendment in Constitution is possible to set up separate constituencies of minorities where they can have elected their representatives to assemblies.
He said that under the Constitution, the minorities’ representatives reach assemblies on reserved seats through different political parties.
“Either they have to be get elected on reserved seats, or in case a constitutional amendment is made, then they will lose reserved seats and they will have to elect their candidates through the vote, in case of delimitation of their own constituencies,” Isa Khan explained.
“But they cannot have both choices because their role in the electoral system is dependent on their population in the country,” he added.