Pakistan: Religious minorities did not get equal rights in electoral matters

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...[L]arge sections of religious minorities feel frustrated and quite a few among them have begun to express reservations about the value of the joint electorate system.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The News
By Myra Imran | October 10, 2013

Islamabad: The equality in electoral matters allowed to members of religious minorities under the law was not available to them in practice during May 11, 2013 general elections.

The conclusion make part of the report titled ‘Religious Minorities in Elections: Equal in Law, Not in Practice’ launched by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday. The report points out gross violations of election code during May 11 elections, in constituencies where minorities enjoy large vote bank.

As a result, the report says, large sections of religious minorities feel frustrated and quite a few among them have begun to express reservations about the value of the joint electorate system. “HRCP believes this is not a good omen for democracy and asks the government to take affirmative measure to ensure equal participation of minorities in the elections,” said eminent human rights activist I A Rehman while addressing the launching ceremony.

To collect information, the HRCP observed 6 constituencies in Sindh and Punjab where minorities are in large number. “The basic objective was to observe the reintroduction of joint electorate and its implementation,” said Rehman. He said that joint electorate was revised in 2002 for all religious minorities except Ahmadiya community. He said that joint electorate system would not yield its full benefits to the religious minorities unless some affirmative action was taken especially by the government, Election Commission of Pakistan and country’s main political parties.

“None of them apparently rose to the occasion in May, 2013.” He said that minorities cannot be brought into the political mainstream without the backing of political parties. The report confirms that in Sindh, the poor and disadvantaged members of religious minority dare not to defy the landlords or religious superiors on whom they depend for subsistence. The most serious violation of law was observed in NA 229, Tharparkar 1 constituency where a pamphlets warning Muslims against the voting for a candidate belonging to the religious minority was circulated. Though it was a gross violation of election code and even Pakistan Penal Code, no action was taken to punish the culprits. Almost all minority community candidates complained of being asked by returning officers, during scrutiny of nomination papers, questions they thought derogatory of their faith. The report mentions that the minority community candidate in NA 226 Umerkot felt threatened by the religious pressure group but was too frightened to name his tormentors.

The report says that minority voters were observed complaining that they were deterred from casting their votes by different tactics such as registration of their votes in far-flung areas. Members of single family were in many cases registered at different polling stations. Minority female voters were particularly targeted and harassed by rowdy elements and the polling staff. A large number of unauthorised personnel were allowed inside polling stations, many of them disguised as polling stations. They kept on influencing voters and polling staff. The report mentions that the low caste voters faced pressure not only from landlords and police officers but also bore the brunt of upper caste Hindus.

Rehman said that there is no evidence of any attempt by the administration to help the admittedly disadvantaged members of religious minorities to freely exercise their right to vote. “The ECP did refer to the need of special attention for religious minorities in its five year plan but did not do anything in practice,” he said. He said that political parties have a key role to play in promoting the cause of members of religious minorities as equal citizens of Pakistan. “While all of them were keen to increase their number in legislature with the addition of candidates nominated on reserved seats of minorities, they lacked the will to accommodate members of minorities on general seats,” he pointed out.

Researcher and Human Rights activist Hussain Naqvi discussed the role played by minorities in the Pakistan movement. He stressed the need to realise that many parts of Punjab became Pakistan only because of the Christian votes.




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