PESHAWAR: Implementation of Minority Rights Forum (IMRF) chairman Samuel Pyara has demanded increase in job quota for minorities from three to five per cent and appointment of Evacuee Trust Property Board chairman from the non-Muslim communities to ensure protection of their rights.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, he expressed his dissatisfaction over the current situation with regard to the rights of minorities and stressed the need for early implementation of the Supreme Court’s verdict in letter and spirit.

Flanked by Augustine Jacob, Radish Singh Toni and other minorities’ representatives, Mr Pyara recalled that the Supreme Court had already given its decision in 2014 about protection of minorities’ rights, but successive governments had failed to implement the verdict so far.

He said that the minorities’ groups were repeatedly demanding increase in their job quota from three to five per cent because their population was increasing, but the employment opportunities were the same.

He said that the government had sent a summary of Muslim candidates for appointment of the board chairman which, he claimed, was a violation of the court judgment in this regard, adding that chief of the board should be from among non-Muslims.

The IMRF chief said that the Supreme Court had also issued directions to the federal government to allocate Rs100 million for endowment fund to be disbursed among the affected people of All Saints Church blasts, but the compensation was not yet given.

He said that the women protection bill had been passed in Sindh Assembly wherein the age of marriage for girls would be 18, but the situation of Hindu girls was quite different as underage girls were forced to marry.

Mr Pyara condemned the alleged forced marriages and conversion of religious minorities in Sindh.

The government, he said, should ensure approval of criminal law protection bill and appoint minorities rights minister from among the minorities’ MPAs.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2019