LAHORE - Participants of a seminar on “Shrinking political space for minorities” have urged the government to release the statistics regarding minorities collected through the sixth population census.

They also stressed upon the Parliament to replace undemocratic method of filling the minority seats in the assemblies with an inclusive and democratic procedure.

Organized by Pattan Development Organisation, the seminar had the participation from members of Punjab Assembly, besides representatives of minorities and civil society organizations from across the Punjab. 

In his key note speech on minorities and education, Shah Vice Chancellor, Government Collage University, Prof. Dr. Hassan Amir said minorties were conspicuous by their absence in academia in the country. He said he had ensured that all vacancies in his institution were filled on merit and according to law and the rules.

Minority representative Peter Jacob said that since the introduction of joint electorate system in the country space for minorities had widened. National Coordinator, Pattan, Sarwar Bari said political leaders should issue tickets to minority candidates in areas where minorities had substantive vote bank. He said there were at least 28 national assembly constituencies where minorities had between 50,000 and 255,000 votes. In these constituencies, he added, the parties could nominate candidates from the minorities.

Bari suggested that these constituencies could also be declared as multi member units. In this regard he gave example of union council elections (2001-2009) when each union council had multiple members including minorities, women, peasants/workers etc. 

The minority parliamentarians spoke about the barriers and challenges they face in the Assemblies. DIG operations Mr. Amir Zulfiqar said that inter & intr-afaith harmony was essential to minimize the extremism in Punjab though it was a difficult and challenging task.

Mr. Hussain Naqi observed that social cohesion was under threat because the political parties as well as the government were under the control of few maulvis who had hijacked Islamabad.

Punjab Assembly members including Ms. Shunila Ruth, Dr. Noshin Hamid and Mr. Shehzad Munshi attended the seminar. DIG Operations Punjab Mr. Amir Zulfiqar Khan, Mr. Samson Salamat, Mr. Peter Jacob, lawyers, and civil society representatives were some of the key invitees.