The minority communities in Sindh are troubled yet again. For the upcoming local government elections, they have been deprived of the right to vote for their own candidates as the non-Muslims nominated on the reserved seats for minorities will be elected by members of union councils and union committees.“We can’t bring in our own people by voting. The minorities’ [members] on reserved seats will be elected through indirect voting by members of the House instead of being directly elected by the community,” explained a frustrated Christian activist, Zahid Farooq. To discuss the issue, Christians and Hindus sat inside a hall at the Holy Trinity Church on Wednesday along with social activists. They realised that they are too late to address the issue. Nonetheless, they decided to challenge this in court and hold a press conference. Minority leaders in Karachi and other cities have said that this essentially has denied their communities the right to freely choose their representatives. The argument also goes that the method will give ruling parties in the provinces greater room to manoeuvre results of the LG polls in their favour. We need to hear a little more from the provincial government as to why this method is being adopted. In the past, it has proved possible to avoid it. While the need to simplify the electoral process and make it more manageable has been cited, this should not happen at the cost of depriving minority groups of their basic rights. The right to vote in representatives directly is among these. The provisions in both provincial LG laws need to be re-examined in some detail. Members of the MQM have already spoken out against it and said they are willing to give general seats to members of the Christian community in areas of Karachi where the Christians constitute more than 10 per cent of the population. The problem this issue highlights is an especially acute one in a country already suffering from divisions based on faith and beliefs. The need is to integrate people and bring them together rather than to create further divisions and pull them apart. The fact that minority groups are disgruntled will not go in our favour and will act to push them further away from the mainstream of political events in the country, thereby isolating them still further.
pk.shafaqna.com
