ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday issued a notice to the Establishment Division over a petition against the federal government for not reserving a 5% job quota for religious minorities.
A single-member bench of the IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani conducted the hearing on a petition filed by Nasim Pervaiz – a cleric at the Grace Bible Church Pakistan.
During the hearing, Nasim’s counsel told the court that the Establishment Division had issued notification dated May 26, 2009, over ignoring and non-reserving 5 percent job quota for minorities which violated Article 36 (protection of minorities) of the Constitution.
The counsel also requested the court to suspend the notification. Later, the court issued a notice to the Establishment Division and directed to submit a reply before the next hearing.
Earlier, Nasim Pervaiz filed a petition and cited the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan and secretary Establishment Division as respondents.
Nasim stated that she filed the petition in the larger interest of the Christian community whose job quota is not being observed in a violation of Article 36.
She stated that Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan advertised various jobs on Oct 26 this year for the residents of Sindh, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) but, intentionally, did not specify the minorities 5 percent job quota in the said advertisement due to which large numbers of minorities/non-Muslims unemployed youth could not apply for the job.
“Resultantly, a sense of deprivation and exploitation would raise in the minorities living in Islamabad.”
“The respondents are not giving the due importance to minorities in terms of Article -36 of the Constitution of 1973,” contended the petitioner.
Nasim argued that it is the 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 a 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) and Establishment Division notification dated May 26, 2009, over ignoring and non-reserving 5 percent job quota for minorities in the interest of justice.
