Punjab to be made exemplary province for minorities: CM

LAHORE, Nov 15 (APP):Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that Punjab was being made an exemplary province for protection of minorities’ rights.

He said this in a meeting with a delegation of National Commission for Minorities Rights, led by Dr Muhammad Shoaib Suddle, which called on the CM at his office here on Friday.

A decision was taken in principle to compile the data of non-Muslim employees from across the province in the meeting. The chief minister said that Punjab minority package would prove to be an exemplary programme with regard to minorities’ welfare.

He said that Youhana Abad would be made a model area with an amount of Rs 300 million. The chief minister ordered for appointing a provincial focal person for solving matters relating to the minorities on time and added that employees belonging to the minority communities would be given official holidays on their religious days.

He pointed out that non-Muslim students were being given educational scholarships worth Rs 25 million while another amount of Rs 25 million will be distributed among non-Muslim research scholars and postgraduate students as scholarships.

The chief minister said that a proposal would be reviewed to exempt non-Muslim students to appear in the competitive examination during their religious days. He said that lands reserved for minorities in the province were being retrieved from squatters. He asked the police officers to personally check the security of churches and other worship places of minorities.

Buzdar said that grant of dual voting right to minorities in the local government elections was a praiseworthy step of the Punjab province. He pointed out that non-Muslim students were being imparted technical training on scholarships in collaboration with six different chambers of commerce, adding that non-Muslim prisoners would also be given remission in sentences for reading their respective religious books.

Dr Shoaib Suddle apprised the chief minister about objectives of the commission. Ramesh Kumar MNA, Saqib Jillani Advocate, provincial minister Ijaz Alam, ACS (Home), administrative secretaries and others attended the meeting.