Pakistan was founded on the theory of separate electorates for the minorities. Mr Jinnah and his team believed that only a true representative of the people can understand and solve their problems. And a true representative is; when an elected candidate represents the fair mandate of the respective community.

Unfortunately in Pakistan, the minorities do not have this right. Our representatives be it an MPA or MNA, are directly nominated by the parties, but truly speaking they are not our representatives at all. Why? Because, we did not vote for them.

I would like to urge the government through this platform to reconsider the issue of separate electorates for minorities and allow us the right to send our own representatives to the assemblies by voting for them.

Manoj Katyara

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014