Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) - A lack of transparency and representativeness. A mechanism of selection based on political patronage and conditioned by corruption. In many cases, assigned to the choice of Muslim parties. The Christians in Pakistan see as "eyewash" the entry into force of the measure (the 18th Amendment), which took place in recent days, which reserves to the religious minorities 4 seats in the Pakistani Senate for each province.
According to Fides sources in the Christian community in Pakistan, "the selection of candidates is the prerogative of the parties, who are mostly Muslim. And it could be based on purely financial criteria, ie considering the contribution, in millions of rupees, that a candidate can give the party ". The seat then, "is sold to the highest bidder and will not always be for a Christian or Hindu". Furthermore, such a mechanism, "penalizes the representativeness, the real ability of candidates, transparency". Favoring the abuse of discretion, "people who only want personal and political gain and who in no way will not protect the rights of minorities are privileged, through the logic of corruption and cronyism".
Christians also raise the question: some areas (like the tribal areas of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, FATA) have no religious minorities, so in this case who will those seats be assigned to? Why not use, then the elective criterion to assign them?
"There are on-going abuses, to the detriment of Christians and religious minorities, politics and society of Pakistan. Incidents of violence can erupt at any moment. But everything happens in the silence of the media", says Fr. John Shakir Nadeem to Fides, Director of "Radio Veritas" in Urdu language and Secretary of Social Communications in the Episcopal Conference of Pakistan. The Pakistani media ignore such problems as the seats in the Senate and "all matters related to religious minorities: this is a confirmation of the conditions of marginalization and discrimination that Christians suffer".
"Everyone officially says - continues Fr. Nadeem - that minorities enjoy full rights in Pakistan. But in fact it is not true. Journalists are also discussing these situations, as the sufferings of the Christians or the rights of minorities are trampled under pressure and often reduced to silence". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 05/09/2011)
