Daily Times

A call made by Christian Democratic Party (CDP) chairman Ben-Hur Yousaf Gill regarding a boycott of the upcoming Local Government (LG) elections is the result of discriminatory policies towards minorities. After the enforcement of the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 in July 2015, minorities have been barred from directly electing their representatives. This is the snatching of rights from the weak and marginalised. The government needs to give the right of direct elections to everybody. The reserved seats for minorities will be filled at the discretion of the chairman, vice-chairman and general councillors. The process is highly centralised and susceptible to corruption. The Punjab government does not seem to care about the challenges the minorities have been facing for so many years in the country. Minority leaders have accused political parties of nepotism while awarding party tickets for contesting elections to those who are elected every time even when they do not serve their own community members. The selected candidates on reserved seats through indirect elections only represent their concerned political parties and protect their interests rather than addressing the issues of the marginalised groups. The pitfalls of this system have become obvious and need to be rectified on an immediate basis. Minorities are already facing many problems in society. They do not have equal rights, are often subjected to injustice, and come under attack on the pretext of mere allegations. The exclusion of minorities from the direct electoral process is against the basic principles of democracy. Minorities, women, youth and peasants equally feel deprived and sidelined in Punjab as they have been deprived of their right to elect their true representatives since long. It is an attempt to prevent political empowerment of marginalised groups, and discourage independent candidates from contesting elections.

It is discriminatory and undemocratic to stop anybody from taking part in direct elections. The political parties should support the Christian Democratic Party and force the Punjab government to give equal rights to minorities to elect their local representatives so that their civic problems could also be addressed. Minorities must have a say in the election of the candidates on reserved seats in local body elections, who already are denied the right to cast votes in favour of MPAs and MNAs on reserved seats in the general elections. Socio-economic and political exclusion of minorities must come to an end now and they must be included in the mainstream of Pakistan — an ideology that was laid down by none other than Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. *