LAHORE (UCAN): As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) the ruling party in Punjab province, Pakistan, rolled out its budget of 2.65 trillion rupees ($12.9 billion) on June 14, allocating 2.5 billion rupees for human rights and minority affairs, the country’s Catholic bishops recommended spending more money on students from religious minorities in the budget for the next fiscal year.
Most of Pakistan’s 2.6 million Christians reside in Punjab.
“As compared to the total budget, the funds for religious minorities are still insufficient. The provincial lawmakers should prioritise education followed by developmental works. They can ask us for help,” Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore, a member of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), said.
“Their first impulse is to spend unused funds on decorating buildings with tiles. They should spend them on renovating our schools facing challenges of damaged roofs and poor sewerage systems,” Archibishop Shaw said.
Bishop Indrias Rehmat of Faisalabad, also proposed more spending on education and housing schemes.
“Such incentives can provide relief to daily wagers and middle-class non-Muslims mostly living in rented houses. But nobody listens to us,” he explained.
On June 15, the Sindh government also presented its 2021 to 2022 budget, allocating 154 million rupees ($7.7 million) for minority affairs.
Ramesh Kumar Gupta, a Hindu activist and lawyer in Hyderabad in Sindh province, agreed with Archbishop Shaw.
“NCM members should be included in developing proposals for minorities. It can help avoid nepotism and ensure accountability amid the dominant wadera (feudalism) culture in Sindh province. Capitalist lawmakers, even from minorities, have their own agendas that ignore the lower class,” Gupta explained.
Sabir Michael, a human rights activist and professor at the University of Karachi, rejected distributing money among minority women.
“Another corrupt practice is to distribute 5,000 rupees among minority widows on religious feasts. Party workers should think of concrete schemes like monthly cash grants as well as scholarships for higher education and professional trainings,” he said.
