ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: Members of the Christian community have demanded that the government should ensure equal rights to minorities in the country. The demand was made in a protest demonstration led by former minister J. Salik outside the Parliament House on Sunday.

They complained that they had been neglected for the last five decades as the policymakers seldom followed the sayings of Quaid-i-Azam who wanted Pakistan to be a safe place and a level-playing field for the followers of other religions.

The protesters in a resolution demanded more allocations for the minorities in the budget.

They said a large number of Christians were living in the slum areas of Islamabad for the past 27 years and had also ownership of their houses for the last 10 years but the settlements were still without basic civic amenities.

They said despite the fact that the government was claiming of providing electricity to all villages, it neglected those living in the heart of the federal capital.

By privatizing the sanitary work, they said, the Capital Development Authority had done injustice to the minority groups.

They demanded the government to increase the number of minority seats in the parliament. They said though the government had increased the number of women seats in the parliament and had increased the total seats from 207 to 335, the minority seats, which were just 10 more than 30 years ago, still remained the same.