ISLAMABAD: As many as 1.77 million Hindus are registered voters and will exercise their right to elect members of national and provincial assemblies in the upcoming election to be held on July 25.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the number of Hindu voters before 2013 polls was 1.40 million now it has reached to 1.77 million, the highest number among the minorities registered voters.
The number of voters belonging to minorities in the country has reached 3.63 million from 2.77 million registered in electoral rolls for the 2013 general elections — registering an increase of 30 per cent.
The Christian community, the second largest group of minorities, has 1.64 million voters. Over 1 million are settled in Punjab followed by over 200,000 in Sindh. Their number has grown at a relatively high pace as compared to Hindu voters.
Of the total 8,852 Sikh voters, most are settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed by Sindh and Punjab. Their presence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is more than their combined strength in Balochistan and Islamabad. They numbered 5,934 in 2013.
The number of Parsi voters has increased from 3,650 in 2013 to 4,235. Majority of them were settled in Sindh province followed by KP. The number of Buddhist voters increased from 1,452 in 2013 to 1,884. Most of them live in Sindh and Punjab provinces.