Hindu legislators on Tuesday clamoured over non-appointment of the scheduled caste people in government departments and blamed the PPP for supporting the upper caste to avail all privileges setting aside a majority of the minority class in the province.
A strong remonstration among the Hindu lawmakers was witnessed during the Sindh Assembly session when the house began debate on a resolution tabled by the minority legislator of PML-F Nand Kumar seeking implementation of five percent quota allocated for minority class in the government departments. The PPP's Hindu legislator, Dewan Chand Chawla, defended the opposition member, Nand Kumar's resolution and said that the government was not fully implementing the five percent jobs quota for minority community in the government's departments.
His outburst created disorder in the house after Sindh Science and Technology Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla negated the resolution and contended that Hindus were being given jobs more than the specified five percent quota in all the government departments indiscriminately.
While his microphone was turned off, he stood up and clamoured over Mukesh Kumar Chawla's statement. At one time, Nand Kumar, Dewan Chawla and Mukesh Kumar indulged in verbal brawl. The Hindu legislators were seen in two blocs no matter who belonged to what party.
Nand Kumar of PML-F, Dewan Chand Chawla and Poonjo Bheel of PPP were seen united against the discrimination against scheduled caste Hindus. However, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Gayan Chand and Mahesh Melani believed Hindus were getting jobs irrespective of their castes in the government departments more than the allotted quota.
Nand Kumar debating his resolution said that the minority community in the province was suffering from non-implementation of five percent jobs quota. He urged the government to ensure implementation on job quota. Dewan Chand Chawla also asked his government to ensure the quota implementation and seconded the resolution. However, Mahesh Melani called the resolution a 'point scoring' politics. He said the government had provided over 40 percent jobs in Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar districts to Hindus.
Poonjo Bheel said that the Hindus were 46 percent in Tharparkar and 49 percent in Umerkot districts but not getting jobs as per the quota. He urged the government to ensure implementation of the five percent jobs quota in all departments. Even in Sindh Assembly, he said, there were only two scheduled caste lawmakers and majority were from the upper class Hindus. He said the scheduled caste Hindus were in a majority and wanting jobs in all departments. "Discrimination exists against them [scheduled caste]," he added.
Mukesh Kumar Chawla said, "I think more than five percent quota is given," adding that the PPP governments had always protected the minority's rights. He said the PPP believed in equality among all castes. Gayan Chand also denied that there had been any discrimination in jobs allocations against Hindus in the province. He said the PPP government had been providing jobs more than five percent to the minority community.
However, Syed Sardar Ahmed urged the government to ensure five percent quota to minority communities in jobs and allow opportunity to the marginalized community to also participate in open merit quota of 95 percent. PPP's legislator Syed Sardar Ali Shah called the Hindus 'son of soil' and urged the government to treat them equally as Pakistani citizens. The house finally adopted the resolution unanimously.