_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Pakistan
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Christians to contest all elections
No more separate votes
The government of Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has abolished a system of separate political representation for religious minorities, allowing them to contest elections along with the Muslim majority. It also increased the size of the lower house of the parliament to give more representation to the people.
Tanvir Naqvi, chairman of the National Bureau of Reconstruction, made the announcement after a special meeting of the Cabinet. Musharraf had promised in an address to the nation that he would fight religious intolerance and that there was “no place in Pakistan for bigotry, fanaticism, and violence.” On the same day, the president ordered four hard-line Islamist groups disbanded, including two blamed for arranging a deadly attack on the Indian parliament on December 13 that brought the two countries to the brink of war.
Pakistan’s religious minorities, including Christians and Hindus, have long been demanding a joint electoral system, saying that the separate electorate isolated the minorities and cut them off from the mainstream. The separate electoral system was introduced by the former military ruler Gen. Mohammed Zia-ul Haq in 1980s.