HYDERABAD: Despite the significant numbers of Christians living in Hyderabad and the interior Sindh, the community has only fielded one candidate for the provincial assembly seat PS-65, Suleman Noor Alam, who has been urging the people of his constituency to vote for him without any religious or racial discrimination.
Meanwhile, Pasban-i-Pakistan (PP), a socio-political group in Pakistan that works for human rights, has resolved to firmly support Suleman Noor Alam,
According to a press release recently issued by PP, the party’s regional president Arshad Arain, Manzoor Ahmed and Anwar Bhatti initiated a door-to-door election campaign for Suleman, to persuade people to vote for him.
The only Christian candidate in the interior Sindh has pledged to resolve critical issues of his constituency and raise his voice in the assembly against injustices with the poor, if he gets elected.
Importantly, PP has strongly criticised the mainstream political parties for sidelining the candidates belonging to the minority faiths.
“These parties did nothing to secure the rights of minorities but shouted empty slogans,” the PP representatives said.
Many prominent Christian community members including Younis Gill, Nazir Masih, John Gill, Waris Sadiq and others asserted that the mainstream political parties did not issue any party tickets to their representatives while they have been demanding an equal participation in the electoral process of the country.
“Since a long time, we have been demanding elections not selections,” they said.
Nazir Masih revealed that there were more than 20,000 registered voters, belonging to the minority faiths, in PS-65 constituency of Latifabad, and expressed hope that they would support and vote Suleman.
“We are being threatened to withdraw our candidate, but we are not afraid of such threats,” he said adding that social media has raised awareness amongst youths.
Published in Daily Times, July 18th 2018.