LAHORE, Feb 15: The joint electorate system, which was taken as a boon by the minorities in Pakistan in the 2002 general election, is now being seen as a bane in the Feb 18 polls.

Dejected and desperate over the outcome of the joint electorate in the previous general election, both the Christians and Hindu communities want the future government to first dispense with the Musharraf government’s gift.

The minorities had enjoyed the separate electorate till 1956 and it was then restored in 1985.

“The joint election system has, in fact, deprived over 150 million Christians and four million Hindus in the country of their democratic right to elect their representatives through their vote,” maintain the leaders of both communities.

They describe the procedure of electing minority representatives for the national and provincial assemblies under the joint electorate by the winning political parties on reserved seats as ‘highly undemocratic’.

The number of Christian voters registered in Punjab is over one million, with Lahore having 200,000, followed by Sialkot, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan.

“We are not much optimistic that the new government will redress our other grievances as well, but what matters more for us is restoration of separate electorate,” Human Liberation Commission of Pakistan Secretary-General Aslam Sohail Suhotra says. Elaborating on why the community is more interested in this particular demand, Mr Suhotra says in the separate electorate the minorities used to elect their representatives against the reserved seats in the NA and PAs who were accountable to their voters and struggled for their rights.

“In the joint electorate, the minorities’ representatives in the assemblies usually follow the line of the political party which has got them elected. They remain no more loyalists to their communities,” he adds.

Former MPA Peter Gill points out another flaw in the joint electorate, saying no political party feels compulsion to award a ticket to a minority candidate on its platform which is very disappointing. “One hardly finds a few minority candidates throughout the contest on the major parties’ platforms.”

Besides, the Christian leaders also want the future government to take measures to protect their worship places. “One of our main churches in Garden Town, Lahore, was demolished during the previous government. Such incident should not happen again in the future,” they plead.

Pakistan Scheduled Caste Movement President Ramesh Jaipal has also voiced the need for the separate electorate system. “Over 450,000 Hindus are living in Punjab and there is no one in the power corridors to listen to the problems we are facing.”