By: Zeeshan Yaqoob
Before 1999, the religious minorities of Pakistan, had the right to elect their political
representative through direct balloting electoral process. The General Musharraf regime in 2002 had made reforms and revised the electoral rules, through which minorities were given the right to vote for general seat candidates from the majority community members in their respective constituencies whereas, for their own parliamentary representation, the indirect system of election was introduced. The mainstream political parties of the country were given the right to send nominations to the election commission of Pakistan where proportionate minority membership was commissioned to be allocated to the mainstream political parties. Since the time, minorities find these reforms ‘undemocratic’ for this system does not meet the
norms of democracy.
In this connection, Chairman Pakistan Minority Alliance Akmal Bhatti, while underlining the struggle of minorities in the electoral sphere said that, in the year 1985 electoral reforms held in the regime of General Zia’s, according to which the representatives of minorities were elected through the independent elections, by the votes on their own people, through a secret ballot. In this system, minorities used to vote on the basis of faith, which not only alienated them from mainstream parties but also triggered denominational barriers. Despite some imperfections, this system allowed the participation of minorities in the national politics and democratic process. Minority voters somehow didn’t feel much political and social isolation
in this system.
Pointing out at the challenges in Zia’s electoral reforms for minorities he said that, the
minorities candidates felt huge financial burden in contesting the elections, because
according to this system the Member of Provincial Assembly (MPAs) had to campaign all over the province, while Member of National Assemblies (MNAs) had to campaign in whole of the country. Due to huge areas allotted for the political campaigns, the candidates suffer from the financial challenges, which paved the way for investors with a recovery agenda. In this system, it was difficult for the common man to contest and win in the elections, only affluent and capitalists were the active participants of the country’s democracy than, he added
Further, he informed that on the basis of the population of minorities in all of the four
provinces, the allocation of reserved seats was maintained in 1985. Ten seats were allocated on the account of reserved seats in NA. Four seats were distributed among Hindu’s and Christians. One for the scheduled caste and one for the representation of other small minority groups. While, in the sphere of provincial reserved seats for minorities, Sindh had nine, Punjab eight, Balochistan and NWFP (now KP) had three seats each.
In the past 37 years the population of minorities have increased constituencies-vise,
throughout the country, but the number of political representatives on the account of reserved seats has remained the same. In 2022, the year 1985 population percentage is implemented. Only, post the merger of FATA with KP, one seat has been added to the minorities reserved seats of the province. The minority seats must be enhanced as per the current population statistics, he maintained.
Indicating at the indirect selection system for minorities, Former Secretary General of
FAFEN and Executive Director of PATTAN Sarwar Bari, said that political parties hold the control of the minorities candidates in the present electoral system, there is no contribution of the candidate and will of voters in the selection. In order to overcome the political disempowerment of minorities he suggested that, a “multimember constituency election” to be held in future at the constituencies having majority of minorities voters. While elaborating his statement, he added mentioned that there are more than 40 constituencies in the country, where minorities hold more than 50-60% voters, specifically in the areas of Sindh and interior Punjab. He recommended that two candidates, i.e. one from minority community and other from the majority must contest from the same constituency. Both, minorities and majority voters must be held eligible to cast their votes to both of the candidates of majority and minority. This will not only end up the political isolation of the minority candidate in the constituency but will also develop the feeling of relevancy in the democratic party-base electoral process.
Further, he also underlined that the number of general seats has increased twice in upper and lower houses, but there is no revision on the account of quota for reserved seats of minorities. “The number of ten reserved seats must be enhanced to 20 for better political representation
of the religious minorities, this will not only empower them politically but will also bring solution to their socio-economic issues” he added
Shahzad Imran Sahotra who was an Independent Christian candidate of MNA contested on General seat against the eight Muslim candidates in NA 62 Rawalpindi in 2018 general election, expressed that in London a Muslim man can be elected as Mayor, but in Pakistan a non-Muslim candidate cannot win and get vote from Muslim voter, due to social discrimination on the basis of religion. Responding to the question of why he didn’t contest on the reserved seat of minorities, he said that He felt humiliated to be part of the current electoral system for minorities. He underlined that mainstream parties have small minority wings and one has to lobby and bargain for the ticket within that minority wing, which lessens the worth of candidate. Focus in such system shifts onto the acquirement of ticket and not on community issues and development, he added
In addition, he pressed that the government should place electoral reforms ahead of
impending general elections by marking the minority’s majority constituencies and conduct elections for minorities separately on constituency-wise basis. Shahzad secured fourth position among the eight candidates in NA 62, and bagged 1975 votes.
In the general elections of 2018, Hindu candidate Mahesh Mallani had won a National
Assembly seat from Tharparkar (NA-222) which has large population of Hindu voter but
Muslim voters are still in hefty majority over there. Mallani received more than 100,000
votes, among the votes majority of the voters were Muslims. Similarly, Gyan Chand Israni has bagged around 35,000 votes in Jamshoro district (PS-81), majority of the votes cast to him were also from the Muslim voters. The Jamshoro district has only 3.8 percent of Hindu population. Further, Hari Ram won from PS-47, a constituency from the Mirpur Khas. Again, it’s the city, having clear majority of Muslim voters. All of these instances show that Muslim voters do vote to the minority candidate even if they contest on a general seat. This point raises an argument, contradictory to the experience of the Shahzad Imran Sohatra (Christian Independent Candidate on general seat in Rawalpindi) who claims that Muslim voters does not vote to the minority candidates, who are contesting the elections from the general seats as they consider their religion superior to that of minorities.
All of these seats won by the candidates of religious minorities were contested on the tickets of mainstream political party i.e. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and one cannot deny the fact that other than the support of Muslim voters, the major element in these constituencies had large base of mainstream party (PPP) voters, which had voted to these candidates, as per the directives of the party. PPP is a secular party which has always supported minorities and their voters are also sensitized in that particular manner.
But, keeping the ground realities intact, not the majority of the political parties would be giving general seats tickets to the candidates from minorities, because of two reasons. Primary reason is that minorities have fewer voters in constituencies as compared to the majorities and the second reason is conservative and biased nature of the majority towards the minorities. Moreover, the religious-political parties whose majority of vote bank lies in the religious lot in the country, would also think-twice before giving ticket of general seat to the minority candidate by surpassing a Muslim candidate.
Chairman Rawadari Tehreek Samson Salamat, emphasizing on the restoration of the
independent electoral system for minorities, said that as a citizen of Pakistan religious
minorities should be given the right to vote and elect their representatives. He termed the current selection system for minorities as ‘undemocratic’ for minorities and the deprivation from exercising their democratic rights. Further he believed that if a voter votes on the basis of faith only within the minority community, then it will widen the gap among the minorities and majority community.
Azam Miraj, Chairman Tehreek-i-Shanakhaat, brought to notice the increasing political
alienation of religious minorities in the current system. Meraj, urged the authorities including election commission to give the religious minorities the right to exercise dual vote in the general elections. Through the provision of double votes, the minority voters can cast their vote to both candidates i.e. Muslim and Non-Muslim candidates in a single constituency. Dual vote system will restore the democratic rights of the minorities and will maximize their relevance to the country’s politics as an unignored stakeholder.
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