Non-Discrimination in respect of access to public places:

1. In respect of access to places of public entertainment or resort, not intended for religious purposes only, there shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the ground only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth.
2. Nothing in clause (1) shall prevent the state from making any special provision for women and children.                                                                         (Article 26, Constitution of Pakistan)

Equal access to public offices

1. Everyone has the right to take part in government of his country, through freely chosen representative.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will be expressed in periodic and genuine elections, which shall be universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. (Article 21, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Right to Participate

Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in decision on national and, where appropriate, regional level concerning the minority to which they belong or the region in which they live in a manner not incompatible with national legislation. (Article 2(3) Declaration on the rights of person belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities)

Political participation and the religious minorities

Enrollment of votes

Apart from the common complaints about the voter’s list i.e. manipulation of record and registration, retention of National Identity Cards by the employees or power brokers and local influentials. Poor people have become disillusioned and lack awareness to participate in the election process which results in non-registration and ultimately a disenfranchisement. There are certain problems that the religious minorities face more frequently than other citizens.

a) Lack of National Identity Cards and domiciles to prove and register, as voters.
b) Misspelled names and wrong entries in the voter’s list due to lack of training of documentation staff, which entails to their vote being objected to or rejected by the polling staff or polling agents.
c) So far the voter’s lists were segregated on the basis of religion, making it difficult for the voter’s as well election campaigns and candidates, to identity the correct polling stations and exercising the rights to vote.

More than logistical problem, the separate list on the basis of religion and declaration of faith for Muslim candidates are the legacies of religious apartheid in the political order in the form of separate electorates. Election rules 51(3) still require Muslim candidates for local bodies to declare that they are not Ahmedis.

Such regulations have made it nearly impossible for Ahmedis in particular to participate in the election even as voters.

Usually, the Government school teachers are assigned to register and update the voter’s list. The evidence of a callous handling by the vote registration staff was recorded in the Human Rights Monitor 2006 report in Gujranwala. This attitude is common about the localities housing non-Muslim citizens, tribal and nomads.

Participation in general

The political system as well the political culture remains deeply divided on the basis of religion translated into a social and political marginalization. It is so because the legacy and the concept of separate electorate continue to be part of the system in one way or the other. The concept of affirmative action based on social justice has not been defined therefore, social and political exclusion continues to nurture the status qouof privileged and the non-privileged divide. At the civil society level majority and minority communities need to make serious efforts to bridge the void created by divisive politics. It is nonetheless a shared responsibility of the civil society actors, especially the political parties, minority communities and the government. However, the goal is impossible to achieve without correcting the basic flaws in the domain of political system and policy.

Local bodies

The idea of distributive justice mistaken for representation prevailed upon the principle of culture of rights thus; the local bodies system disappointed the masses on several counts.

• For local bodies’ elections 2005, the political separation was removed for the voters; however the seats in the Union, Tehsil and district Councils were reserved on the basis of religion creating a contradiction in terms.

• The non-Muslim councilors were ignored in the formation of sub-committees and for not providing facilities in the council.

• The elected non-Muslims representatives in the local government are being ignored and are far behind in access to development funds as compared to funds available to the Muslim representatives. The following reports show the pattern clearly:

• Reserving seats on religious basis (Muslims and non-Muslims) made it possible for the power brokers and the majority opinion to bring representatives from minorities of their choice rather than the true representatives. This scheme provided some people the chance to propagate that was a better choice.

• Election Commission of Pakistan indicated that reserved seats for minority women and various other categories, as many as 1,015 union councils in the Punjab have remained without minority representation on reserved seats for the last two terms of the local governments. Almost 30% of the total number of union councils in Punjab (3,464) is without minority representation. Out of 35 districts in the Punjab, only three districts, Lahore, Sialkot and Sheikhupura, have 100% representation of minorities while many others did not crossed the 50% mark. Friday Times December 22-28, 2006

National and Provincial Assemblies:

On August 1, 2002, the government restored reserved seats for the religious minorities both in the National (10) and Provincial Assemblies (22) for Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists and Ahmedis.

The persons contesting on reserved seats for religious minorities were to be elected through proportional representation of political parties’ list of candidates on the basis of total number of general seats won by each political party. The political party securing less than five percent of the total number of the general seats in the National Assembly not to be entitled to seat for reserved for non-Muslims.

However there are problems in this arrangement that make the minorities voiceless:

a) Reserve seats for the religious minorities derive their rationale from the concept of social justice. However, putting an end to injustice is the very purpose of a society, a nation. Energies therefore, should be invested in ending the injustices rather than making a norm out of reserved seats. The application of the social justice has to wider than a few seats; it must be ensured that social justice principles take their course in the area of economic rights.

b) The strength of the National Assembly was increased from 237 to 350 seats, including 60 seats for the women. Twenty-five new seats were created for the technocrats.

c) Although it is not specific to minority representative, lack of transparency gives rise to corruption. There has to be a community based accountability mechanism to check that the development funds are used with transparency.

Minorities’ representation in Senate

Members of Punjab Assembly from religious minorities demanded that seats should be reserved in the Senate for the religious minorities. It was said that the Senate had become ‘No Go Area’ for the non-Muslims because seats for Technocrats, women from majority community and people from FATA.                                                                               Daily Nawa-e-Waqt March 7, 2006

1. Recommendation: The reservation of seats on the basis of religion should be abolished and union councils should be divided into smaller constituencies to cater for representation on the basis of localities and population.

2. The term minority must be used in the wider meaning and if their representation is considered necessary, all minorities (ethnic, linguistic, national and indigenous) should be given representatives in all tiers of governance and decision making.

3. Measures should be taken to ensure economic empowerment of all minorities through reservations of seats (quota) in Colleges, Universities and government jobs at all levels.

4. The political parties must involve religious minorities in the general elections by awarding tickets to minority candidates on general seats for National and Provincial Assemblies.