MULTAN: Religious minorities will become more vulnerable and their basic political rights will be violated openly under the amended Punjab Local Government Ordinance of 2015.

Justice and Peace Commission of Pakistan Executive Secretary Hyacinth Peter said this at a gathering of minorities and political activists on Tuesday.

“By not giving right to religious minorities to poll their vote is contradictory to the Constitution and against democracy,” he said.

He said local bodies were a basic institution of democracy and true democracy gave equal rights and opportunities to everyone.

He said the amended ordinance was anti-democracy and discriminatory that had excluded minorities from the electoral process.

Indirectly elected local representatives could not be called true representatives of minorities and they would be just puppets, he said.

“The Local Body Election Ordinance is not only violating the voting rights of religious minorities but it also violates voting rights of youth and women. Religious minorities are equal citizens, therefore we can’t accept any discrimination based on any condition,” he said.

“We strongly demand that this discriminatory ordinance be reviewed and minorities and other vulnerable segments be given right to elect their representatives through direct electoral process otherwise we will boycott this anti-minorities election,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, October 7th , 2015

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