ISLAMABAD: A sub-committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony is meeting here on Monday to receive a briefing on conditions and development work of worship places of minorities in Sindh.

The four-member sub-committee, headed by Ramesh Lal of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), will particularly focus on the uplift programmes for worship places of minorities announced and carried out by the federal and the provincial government over the last three years, the agenda for the meeting says.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, Mr Lal said the sub-committee had been constituted when the minority members showed their resentment over the fact that the main committee had never convened any meeting on minorities’ issues whereas it regularly held meetings on occasions of Haj and other religious occasions of Muslims.

Mr Lal said that the committee had asked the secretary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony and the chairman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) to brief members on the last three years’ development work at the worship places of minorities in Sindh.

Mr Lal, who belongs to Sindh, said that the committee had decided to review the state of affairs and conditions of worship places in other provinces as well and it would hold similar meetings for Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

The PPP MNA alleged that the present federal government had done nothing for the welfare of minorities and development of their worship places.

He said that the EPTB had huge funds at its disposal, but it was not spending money for improving conditions of temples and gurdwaras.

Mr Lal said that during the previous PPP government’s tenure, huge amounts of money had been released as financial assistance and for distribution of gifts among the poor minority people through their elected representatives on the occasions of their religious festivals, like Diwali, Holi and Christmas. This government, he said, had stopped this practice.

When contacted, ETPB Chairman Siddiqul Farooq refuted allegations of the PPP MNA, saying that his institution had been spending huge amounts on improving facilities at worship places of minorities, especially those of Hindus and Sikhs.

Mr Farooq said that all decisions in the ETPB were being made through a board having representation of minorities, provinces, ministries and economic experts concerned.

He said that most of the worship places did not fall in the ETPB’s jurisdiction, adding that provincial governments were mainly responsible for looking after and renovation and rebuilding of minorities’ worship places. He said that the ETPB had a very limited role in this regard.

In reply to Mr Lal’s allegations against the federal government, he said it was due to wrong policies of the previous PPP government that the ETPB had to suffer huge financial losses. He alleged that illegal appointments made by the previous PPP government had increased the administrative expenditure of the ETPB.

Mr Farooq said that the ETPB had recently carried out a lot of development activities in Sindh which included increase in the grant for a temple in Sukkur from Rs1 million to Rs2m and provision of a bus for funerals.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2016