Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – A number of civil society groups organised a rally on Pakistan’s National Minorities Day on 11 August in Faisalabad to demand electoral reform to allow members of minorities to choose their own local representatives.
This is part of the ‘Direct vote now’ campaign whose immediate goal is to get the Punjab legislature to repeal the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 and reinstate the 2013 law.
The event was organised by the Peace and Human Development (PHD) Foundation and the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM), in cooperation with the Aawaz District Forum of South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK), Adara Samaji Behbood and Rights of Expression, Assembly, Association and Thought (REAT).
In 2002, former President Musharraf introduced the "joint electoral system,"which allows non-Muslims to vote for Muslim candidates in their own constituencies. However, it does not give Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities the power to pick candidates for minority seats, thereby denying them the theoretical equality of rights, and access to the Assemblies (lower house and senate).
"The Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 is an attempt to prevent the political empowerment of the most marginalised groups and to discourage the participation of independent candidates not affiliated with the major parties,” said PHD Foundation director Suneel Malik.
"All other provinces except for Punjab have adopted the direct electoral system on reserved seats,” he added. “It is sad that the voters will have no say on the election of councillors on reserved seats, who already are not eligible to cast vote in favour of MPAs and MNAs on reserved seats in general elections. This is discrimination.”
"By depriving one third of the right to be elected, the government wants women (51 per cent of the population), young people (62 per cent), workers (70 per cent) and religious minorities (3 per cent) to become insignificant, ineffective and apolitical,” said Shazia George, a member of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women.