ISLAMABAD: The government has refused to give minorities representation in the upper and lower houses of the parliament, provincial assemblies and local government institutions according to their population. According to the documents available with Daily Times, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs took a tough stance on an increase in the number of seats for minorities at the legislative institutions. It is the prerogative of the government to take such steps, but there is no proposal under consideration at the election commission in this regard. Under Article 51(2A) and 106 of the Constitution, 10 seats are reserved for non-Muslims in the National Assembly and 23 seats in provincial assemblies. However, documents say that minority population of the country has increased considerably. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs says the number of registered non-Muslim voters in the country right now is 2.997 million — 1.498 million Hindu voters, 1.325 million Christian voters, 0.119 Ahmadi voters, 6,193 Sikh voters, 3,347 Parsi voters, 1,643 Buddhist voters and 42,000 voters of other minority communities. There are more than 1.6 million non-Muslim voters in Sindh alone.