TAXILA: The Pakistan United Christian Movement (PUCM) chairman, Albert David, on Monday said efforts were under way to ensure that members of his community were counted accurately in the population census.

He was talking to journalists during his visit to U.P. Church in Attock on Monday. Pastor Javed Johnson was also present on the occasion.

Terming the results of the 1998 census “flawed”, Mr David said Christian leaders had realised the importance of reliable statistics of the community.

“The census will not only help Christians know their accurate number but also help them socially and politically,” he added.

He said political leaders from minorities, especially Christians, had long been demanding an increase in their seats in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. He was of the view that in 1970 the NA’s seats were 145, which were increased to 210 in 2008 and 342 in 2013. But the seats for non-Muslim communities have not been from 10.

Albert David said that the Christians’ population in the country was more than eight million but their representation was very little in the parliament. Albert said that he had meetings with election commission officials and even they were not aware of the situation being faced by the Christians.

He demanded that political parties must own them as political workers and must not confine them to minority wings and said that political parties must include them in their central executive bodies.

He said it was high time that political parties should give Christians their due rights.

He said that the prosperity of Christians was the prosperity of Pakistan and “we want to play a significant role in this context”. Albert said Christian community was against extremism, terrorism and bad governance as these are the issues being faced by Pakistan and not by a specific community or group.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017