The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to ensure the implementation of the five per cent quota reserved for minorities in government jobs.
In the debate on the resolution moved by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional parliamentary leader Nand Kumar, opposition members criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party for failing to implement the quota. The government, meanwhile, claimed to have provided more jobs for minorities than required by the quota.
“PPP leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto initiated the quota that is still part of the party manifesto but unfortunately, it is not being implemented,” Kumar said.
Sindh excise and taxation minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla claimed, however, that he had appointed 60 to 70 inspectors from minority communities. Health minister Jam Mahtab Dahar, meanwhile, announced that the government had given jobs to more than 80 per cent of non-Muslims in Thar, claiming that the quota was being adhered to in every department.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MPA Poonjo Mal Bheel said that Pakistan’s minorities comprised 10.2 million people, the majority of whom were deprived of their rights. “The facts are being distorted here. The quota is not being implemented.”
PPP parliamentary leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro suggested not using the word ‘minority’ for non-Muslims. He added that jobs were being given to them on merit.
Syed Sardar Ahmed of the MQM said that the word had constitutional cover. “The five per cent quota and merit are two different things,” he said. “You might have given jobs to many people but this quota is not being implemented.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2015.
