KARACHI, Aug 4: Members of the city council belonging to different minority communities have welcomed the decision taken by President Gen Pervez Musharraf for restoring the reserve minority seats in the national and provincial assemblies.

City counsellors have expressed gratitude over the decision, which had been a demand of all minority groups in the country.

Mangla Sharma, who belongs to the Hindu community but has been elected on a general women’s seat from Jamshed Town, said that none of the religious or political groups in the country have supported the idea of abolishing reserved seats for minorities.

She said that before the reserved seats were introduced, only one Hindu from Tharparker had gotten elected for a national assembly seat in the 1970 elections among all the minorities in Pakistan, whereas due to reserved seats, members belonging to different minorities can have representation in the national and provincial assemblies, just as in the district government.

After the announcement of the joint electoral system, the government had announced the abolishment of reserved seats for minorities, which created resentment among the minorities, as that would give them no representation in the assemblies.

Michael Javed lauded the joint electoral system introduced by the government and described it as a step to develop more political participation by the minorities in mainstream politics.

Though welcoming the decision, he added that minorities are the last ones to be taken into confidence by successive governments in matters concerning them, and hoped that this attitude will change as this government has listened to minorities before taking final decision.—PPI