HYDERABAD: Speakers at a minorities convention appealed to the federal government to establish a ministry for minority, induct Hindu people into law enforcement agencies, protect their temples and graveyards, make a law on forced conversions, pass the marriage bill and take other measures.

They said that if there was federal minority ministry, it would protect rights of minorities well because nobody represented minorities in the federal government.

They were speaking to participants of Minorities Convention 2014, organised by Rights of Minorities Foundation at the local press club here on Saturday.

PML-N MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Wakwani said minorities members were facing many problems in the country and appealed to the government to prevent attacks on temples and land grabbing of graveyards.

He said that if there was an attack on the religious places of minorities, the case (FIR) must be registered against accused under sections of the blasphemy law. He regretted that there were 10 MNAs from minorities, but there was no MNA belonging to the scheduled caste, including Meghwar, Kolhi and Bheel.

Pakistan Hindu Council president Chella Ram Kewlani called for measures to protect minorities rights.

Young Hindu Panchayat Pakistan patron Jai Kumar Dhirani demanded that Hindu people must be appointed in the law enforcement agencies so as to give more confidence to them that they were also stakeholders in the country. He slammed derogatory remarks given by the Sindh chief minister in the Sindh Assembly recently against women of Thar. He said he could not repeat such words used by the chief executive of Sindh against women of Thar.

He said the CM must ruminate that Hindu made up 70 per cent of population in Thar. He said that committees, Panchayat, councils were formed to address problems of people when there was poor governance.Hindu Panchayat Hyderabad district president M Parkash demanded the steps to resolve problems of minorities members. Sunni Tehreek (ST) Hyderabad district convener Mohammad Imran also spoke on the occasion.

Young Hindu Panchayat chairman and Pakistan Hindu Council adviser Dr Dilip Kumar Daultani said the government ought to make a law on forced conversions and pass a marriage bill. He also demanded of the federal government to protect temples, churches, Gurdwara of Sikh people and graveyards.

Rights of Minorities Foundation patron Bhagat Karam Chand said that the convention was aimed at removing one acre of encroachment over Tando Yousuf graveyard by Afghanis who made their huts there and threatened local Hindus.

Earlier, a delegation visited Tando Yousuf Hindu graveyard in Hyderabad.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014