PESHAWAR: Members of Christian and Hindu communities on Saturday complained the successive governments had treated them as second-rate citizens and never paid serious attention to resolution of their issues, especially joblessness, denial of admissions to educational institutions.

They, however, expressed the hope that the current PTI-led provincial government would resolve their problems.

These views were expressed by minority MPA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Frederick Azeem Ghori, All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement (APHRM) Chairman Haroon Sarab Diyal, Church World Service of Pakistan representative Kashif Faruki while talking to a group of journalists here.

Frederick Azeem said he had been raising voice for the solution of problems being faced by the minorities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but the government was least bothered to pay proper attention towards them.

He said in the past, the job quota for minorities in various departments was zero but the PTI government had announced to give minorities three percent quota in its jobs.

The MPA said the government should increase the job quota to five per cent like its contemporaries in other provinces.

“The government is giving at least Rs70 million to the members of Muslim MPAs, while the minority MPAs are given Rs10 million only, which is insufficient for the welfare of non-Muslims,” he said.

Mr Frederick Azeem said of the 1120 total seats in all 11 government-run medical colleges, there was only one seat for minorities.

He said the Peshawar High Court had already directed the government to increase the admission quota but the court order had yet to be acted upon.

The MPA said the government was trying to nationalise the Edward College, Peshawar but he wanted to war it that any such attempt would have serious implications.

Kashif Faruki said efforts were made to develop liaison with the members of parliament, media and representatives of different communities to pave way for legislation to protect rights of the minorities.

He said the main issues facing Hindus in the country were absence of marriage legislation and voters registration and that Hindus had long been denied due rights.

Haroon Sarab said Hindus were very vulnerable and they had been struggling to get the right of computerised national identity cards, domiciles, death certificates, marriage agreement and divorce certificates.

He said Hindus and Sikhs living in parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas were the worst affected as they were not given legal documents and forced to prepare fake documents.

The APHRM chairman said majority of the internally displaced persons had been kept deprived of the relief items.

He asked for increase in dowry funds, scholarships for minority students and hostel facilities for Hindus.

Haroon Sarab pointed out that most properties of non-Muslims had been occupied by the government or influential land grabbers.

He demanded early return of such properties to non-Muslims so that they could build hospitals, technical centres and educational institutions there.

The APHRM chairman said in the entire Peshawar, there was no place for cremation of bodies and the Hindus had no option but to bury them at a local graveyard.

He criticised the minorities lawmakers by and large for failing to serve their communities and always focusing on protecting own interests.

Haroon Sarab said political parties should bring minorities to the mainstream politics so that they could contest elections on general seats.