by Imran Morris

In a seminar held in Islamabad, participants discuss reserved quotas for non-Muslims and voting systems. Christians, Hindus and others want more seats and dual voting. Paul Bhatti is against reserved quotas, favours instead "attachment to the nation" and "service to the fatherland". Short of that, he calls for an effective system.

Lahore (AsiaNews) - Pakistan's religious minorities want greater representation and greater influence in government's institutions to guarantee the rights of non-Muslims, who are too often the victims of marginalisation, abuse, violence and persecution.

The issue was discussed at a seminar titled 'Electoral System with reference to Non-Muslims of Pakistan' organised last Wednesday by the federal Ministry of National Harmony in Islamabad.

During its proceedings, representatives of Christian, Hindu and other religious groups called on the central government to allocate more seats to minorities in the country's legislative bodies and adopt the dual voting method, seen as necessary to guarantee effective minority representation in the national Assembly, Senate and provincial legislatures.

Under the current electoral system, non-Muslims can vote for the candidate of their choice but cannot choose seats reserved for minorities.

In theory, all Pakistanis have the same rights and anyone can run for public office. However, it is virtually impossible for Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and others to be elected in the predominantly Muslim society.

Under a current proposal, four seats would be reserved in the Senate and a minimum number of seats would be reserved in provincial legislatures. At present, four seats are reserved for minorities in the National Assembly, a number that did not change when the latter's number of seats went from 207 to 342 seats.

Christian leaders have always insisted that minorities should be part of the mainstream, and win seats and positions without ad hoc quotas or legally reserved seats, which tend to ghettoised non-Muslims even more than they currently are.

However, the principle of 'equal rights and opportunities' has not been respected so far. Until that happens, quotas and reserved seats must be maintained and the numbers increased.

In his address to the seminar, Paul Bhatti, a Catholic and a special advisor to the prime minister on national harmony, invited non-Muslim "religious, political and social leaders" to "meet in order to build together an appropriate electoral system" that would protect minority rights.

He said he was against reserved quotas, arguing that political representatives should be chosen on the basis "of attachment to the nation and service to the fatherland."

However, conditions do not exist at present that would respect the rights of all citizens. Hence, an effective electoral system must be considered as an alternative.

• pakistan
• minorities
• islam
• electoral
• system
• representation