KARACHI: While welcoming the representation given to the religious minorities on four senate seats for the first time in the country’s history, speakers representing different faiths at a gathering have sought an increase in the number of seats reserved for the minorities in the assemblies in proportion to their population.

However, they said, the current election system that allowed political parties to select people for the reserved seats should be replaced with the one where candidates could be directly elected by their respective communities.

These views were expressed by rights activists, former and present lawmakers, and various delegates from Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Larkana and Hyderabad representing non-Muslim communities at the conference, Mainstreaming Minorities in Sindh, organised on Saturday evening by the National Organisation for Working (NOW) communities at the PMA House.

The event was aimed at preparing a set of proposals to bring minorities into the mainstream by involving their representatives working at the grassroots level in the process.

The speakers demanded that political parties do away with their minority wings to enable the minorities to have direct representation in the mainstream politics.

Rufin Wilson from Hyderabad said all ‘discriminatory laws’, which did not allow its non-Muslim citizens to become heads of the state, should be changed.

Recalling the deadly attacks on Shahbaz Bhatti and Salman Taseer, Wilson regretted that people were not free to openly express their views in support of the minorities. These concerns were also shared by provincial lawmaker Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, who told Dawn on the sidelines of the conference that he had received a threatening text message on his cellphone stating that there’s “no room for non-Muslims in a country that was made only for Muslims”.

He said he had lodged an FIR at the Clifton police station and was determined to continue his struggle for the rights of the minorities.

The speaker then touched on the issues of forced conversions, violence against domestic workers many of whom belonged to non-Muslim communities and discrimination against them in the education, health and social sectors.

The changes introduced in textbooks over the years that foster prejudice against religious minorities, especially the Hindus and Christians, must be reversed, he said, adding that it was only a few decades back that the subject of Deeniyat was replaced with Islamiyat.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) coordinator for Sindh Syed Shamsuddin said: “Pakistan was made to protect the rights of the people belonging to a religious minority [Muslims] in the subcontinent when they had been discriminated against in every sphere of life.”

But, he said, it would be an injustice if the Muslims after turning into a majority failed to protect the rights of those belonging to religious and sectarian minorities.

He also said that the mainstream political parties should come up to the help of the minorities and condemn violence against them. He recalled that there was no representation of minorities in the committee that framed the 18th amendment to the constitution.

He proposed that the words “religious minorities” be replaced with “vulnerable groups on the basis of their beliefs” to remove any misgivings.

Interfaith marriages

Ex-senator and Sindh PPP Secretary General Taj Haider said different cultures, religions and traditions were positive assets for the country as they promoted an atmosphere of social trust.

While religious conversion was everyone’s right, the use of force to convert people could not be allowed, he said. The issues related to forced conversion and forced marriages should be resolved through interfaith dialogue, said Haider.

Instead of religious seminaries, he said state-run institutions should assist and protect the people who wanted to convert. Courts could also play a role in this regard, he said, adding that parliament should make a civil marriage law where couples of different faiths do not have to convert just for the purpose of marriage.

All Sindh Bheel Panchayat President Mir Chand Sahjani Bheel, who along with his delegation had arrived from Umerkot, said that people belonging to the scheduled caste were the most oppressed part of this society. Irrespective of the Rinkle Kumari case judgment, the fact of the matter was that the case was taken up and heard, but why no action had been taken against the hostilities being faced by the Bheel community almost daily.

He said there were divisions within the Hindu minority on the basis of caste and those representing them in the assemblies were in fact more loyal to their parties than their communities.

Criticising the government for not honouring its pledge of providing Diwali fund to area people, he said that 162 forms submitted for the purpose were still pending with the authorities.

Thirty reserved seats in NA

Retired judge Inderyas Barkat said the five per cent quota reserved in the central superior services and public-sector corporations for the minorities should be increased to 10 per cent as their population was much more than the last census figures. He said the existing joint electorate system should continue as it was in the interests of the minorities, but the number of seats in the national assembly reserved for the minorities should be increased from 10 to 30 and the representatives on these seats be directly elected by their respective communities, with each community in the country forming one constituency. A similar formula of seat allocation and election could be followed in each federating unit, he added.

Besides, he said, the minorities should have the right to contest on general seats. He also suggested to the minorities to boycott next elections if their demands were not met.

YWCA chairperson Prof Nuzhat Williams demanded that steps be taken to have an ‘accepting society’ rather than a ‘tolerant society’.

She asked if a Muslim girl wanted to marry a non-Muslim in Pakistan, would that also be accepted in the same manner.

“We have to accept each other.”

She recalled the services of non-Muslim heroes such as A R Cornelius, Deena Mistri and Cecil Chaudhry for the country.

She said the country was indebted to the winning votes of three Christian lawmakers and speaker S P Singh who voted in favour of Pakistan when the question of the political division of the United Punjab came up in the assembly in June 1947.

She backed the demand that the number of NA seats reserved for the minorities be increased from 10 to 30.

Referring to the Gojra violence, she said witnesses did not turn up in court to record their testimonies because of fear. “This calls for changing the law of evidence.”

“False and frivolous” cases against Aasiya Bibi and others should be withdrawn, she said.

“Aasiya and Aafia both are the daughters of this land.”

Hindu community leader Mangla Sharma said the blasphemy laws affected non-Muslims the most, as they were manipulated at every level to favour the majority.

She also asked that why a Muslim girl in a forced marriage case was sent back home and a Hindu girl to a shelter.About the divisions within the Hindu community on the basis of caste, she said that all community members, including those belonging to the scheduled castes, should raise voice in the Pakistan Hindu Council for their plight instead of getting divided. She said since the minorities believed that most police officials were biased in favour of Muslims, a high court judge investigate blasphemy cases.

Dominic Stephen was optimistic that things would gradually improve. He cited the example of Nagarparkar where a person belonging to the Hindu Kohli community was selected for Pakistan Army.

Other delegates Deepak Kumar, Safina, Michael Naveed and Charandas also shared their views.

PTI leader Michael Javed was of the opinion that the separate electorate system was in the interest of the minorities. He said the ruling party should have taken action against its lawmaker for not honouring the word of its co-chairman in the Rinkle Kumari case.

He said those living in Ayub Goth, Essa Nagri, Hijrat Colony, Azam Basti and other areas feared forced evacuation due to fast commercialisation.

Endorsing his views, Liaquat Munawar said there were threats to properties of the minorities. He said the property of a catholic school in Korangi and farms in Muzaffargarh had been illegally occupied.

Property protection bill for minorities

PPP lawmaker Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, also the chairperson of the standing committee on minority affairs, said the catholic school property in Korangi 2-1/2 had been retrieved from encroachers and returned to Father Pervez.

He said Essa Nagri and most other city areas where minority communities lived had been regularised. About the YMCA, he said he was fighting the case in court to get it back.

To address similar concerns regarding properties, he said, a private bill on the Protection of Minority Property Act would be introduced in the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday.

Seeking education reforms, he said it was strange that Ethics was taught to non-Muslims only. While each Hafiz Quran student got 20 additional marks, students belonging to minorities had no such option, he added.

The proceedings were moderated by Farhat Parveen.