Pakistan: Senator Danesh Kumar protests ‘discrimination’ in job

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Highlighting that every citizen must have equal status, Pakistani Senator Danesh Kumar raised the issue of job discrimination against minorities in the hiring for posts in foreign missions and said minorities are instead hired mostly for sanitation jobs, media reports said.

On Tuesday, he highlighted that owing to the job ‘discrimination’ against minorities only 17 officers employed at over 122 embassies were members of minorities, reported The Express Tribune.

The remarks by the Senator were made during a session of the upper house where the senator called for proper representation of minorities in foreign missions.

The session was held under the chairmanship of Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani. He pointed out that it was humiliating that out of those scant jobs, six khakrob posts (sanitation jobs) have been given to religious minorities.

Speaking over the matter, Pakistan Federal Minister Sherry Rehman said that the job quota which is reserved for them must be respected. These posts are from Federal Public Service Commission (FBSC), she said, reported The Express Tribune.

Chairman Sanjrani, taking stock of the situation, sent the issue of the minority quota to the relevant committee. Senator Danesh Kumar protested saying that the Pakistani government has appointed a maulana saheb to head the ministry for religious affairs.

Another matter which brought about heated exchange in the upper house was the matter of seats in medical and dental colleges and discrimination against smaller provinces.

Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel brought up the issue and said, “In 2020, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) was made Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) through an act. Small provinces were sure to be left behind by this act and more than 16 thousand children left the country.”

It must be pointed out that the targeting of religious minorities has been continuing in Pakistan under blasphemy as a large number of innocent persons who have lost their lives, homes and their terrorized families dispersed, according to media reports.

The misuse of the draconian blasphemy laws against minorities and even members of the Muslim community to settle personal grudges is rampant in Pakistan.

The minorities in Pakistan are constantly being murdered and subjected to inhuman brutalities in the name of blasphemy, conversion to Islam and other sectarian differences.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that Muslims constitute the majority of people booked under the blasphemy laws, followed by the Ahmadi community. According to data by the National Commission for Justice and Peace, 776 Muslims, 505 Ahmadis, 229 Christians and 30 Hindus have been booked under the blasphemy law from 1987 to 2018. (ANI)