The Christian community in the minority wing of the Pakistan Muslim League is upset over not getting representation in the 35-member parliamentary board to be formed to select candidates for the general elections.
Muslim League-N Senator Kamran Michael says that ‘Christians were represented in the 35-member board by Rahila Khadim Hussain, a former member of the Provincial Assembly, which the Christian community has objected to.’
Speaking to Independent Urdu, Kamran Michael said, “We have no complaints with the leadership of the party, but this is the first time that the president or general secretary of any wing has not been made a part of the board.”
“This time we tried to run it in a system and manner, but since the leadership itself was there and they conducted the interviews themselves, the candidates at least had the comfort that the lists did not come, but the leadership listened to us.”
Kamran Michael said that ‘We are not saying that Rahila Khadim Hussain should not be made a member of the board, but he has no connection with the Christian community, he does not know him. Decisions of minorities can be made by minorities.
“We just wanted to make sure that the Christian community is very large among Pakistan’s minorities and that a representative of them should be part of the board.”
Continuing, he said, “On this, we have heard a lot from our community, bishops, clergy and institution heads, but also from other parties that the Muslim League-N is leading from Punjab and the majority of minorities in Punjab are Christians.” And here 90% of the votes belong to the Christian community among the minorities, so why was this community ignored in every respect?’
Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif were also present during the Parliamentary Board meeting to be held on 19 December 2023 in Faisalabad (Photo: Muslim League-N/Facebook)
Kamran Michael says that ‘Already in 2018, two members were elected to the National Assembly who belonged to the Hindu community and they were from Sindh where we did not have a single seat.
“Neither did we have a member of the provincial assembly on the general seat nor in the national assembly, yet we got two Hindu members of the national assembly on the reserved seats and there was a lot of noise then and it still happens.”
He said that the only good thing this time was that a 35-member team was sitting, but Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif did the interviews themselves. Therefore, we have full confidence in the leadership, but only those who can be scrutinized or shortlisted by the party can send them to the public for political service.
He said that at this time I am trying to unite the disgruntled colleagues who have not been selected for specific seats in the provincial or national assembly and explaining that it can be discussed later but at this time the party Our support is needed, so you play a proactive role.’
In this regard, PML-N’s Punjab Information Secretary Uzma Bukhari says that ‘Kheldas from the Hindu community was there to represent the minorities in the parliamentary board. Now in such a big parliamentary board, it is not possible that among the minorities we have Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis in Sindh, so every minority is represented in the board.
He says that a representative of the minorities represented everyone and a whole day was kept separately for the minorities and they all gave interviews in front of Mian Nawaz Sharif, so I think it should not be such a big issue. Should.’
Can this resentment damage the vote of Muslim League-N?
In this regard, political analyst and columnist Wajahat Masood believes that ‘Christian votes are not decisive in any constituency of Punjab, but they are from their strong neighborhood. The case of the Hindu vote in Sindh is that in three districts there are so many that they win their own elections, and the Hindus outnumber the Christian population.’
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Wajahat Masood also said that ‘I think the Muslim League-N would prefer to please the Hindu community because there is a good number of Christian population in the cities of Punjab including Sheikhupura, Lahore, Khanewal, Multan etc.’
On the other hand, according to political analyst Majid Nizami, “in minority and other electoral matters, a few leaders of the Muslim League-N, who are from the Sharif family, decide, so they should not be expected to do anything in this regard.” Will make fair decisions.’
He said that as far as pick and choose is concerned, Muslim League-N does the same thing that they bring forward those who are close to them.
“They do not make decisions on the basis of minority or on the basis of merit and the biggest example of this is Ishaq Dar, who is the chairman of the election cell, who has not contested any provincial or national assembly election for 25 years.”