IHC moved against government for ignoring Christians' job quota

A single bench of the IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani will today (Wednesday) take up the petition filed by a Christian woman Nasim Pervaiz who is a priest in Bible Fellowship Church of Pakistan.

The woman filed the petition through her counsel Yasir Mahmood Chaudhry an Advocate and cited Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan and secretary Establishment Division as respondents.

Nasim adopted in her petition that she filed the petition in the larger interest of minorities/Christian community whose job quota is not being observed and it is non-implementation of Article 36 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

She stated that Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan advertised various jobs on October 26 for the residents of Sindh, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) but intentionally ignored and not specified the minorities 5 per cent job quota in the said advertisement due to which large numbers of minorities/ non-Muslims unemployed youth have been deprived to apply for the said jobs.

She added that resultantly, a sense of deprivation and exploitation would raise in the minorities living in Islamabad. "The respondents are not giving due importance to minorities in terms of Article 36 of the Constitution of 1973," contended the petitioner.

Nasim argued that it is fundamental duty of respondents to provide jobs of all classes irrespective of its creed, colour, religion and sect in the government. "The respondents are under legal obligation to act in accordance with the law as provided under Article 4 of the Constitution and to eliminate the exploitation as stated in Article -3 of the Constitution," maintained the petitioner.

Therefore, she prayed to the court that the aforementioned job advertisement may be declared illegal and suspended in the light of Article-36 (protection of minorities).

The petitioner also requested the court to direct the respondents to follow and honour the Article 36 of the Constitution of Pakistan for the supremacy of law in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

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