Lahore: Discrimination or indifference?

Despite an announcement by the Punjab government to provide subsidies to Christians, Yahunabad, one of the most densely populated Christian neighborhoods of the city, remains without a Christmas bazaar, Pakistan Today has learnt. The City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) announced setting up Christmas bazaars in four towns of the city to make clothes and other goods available on subsidized rates. District Coordination Officer Noor-ul-Amin Mengal, chairing a review meeting last Thursday, announced that directions had been issued to administrations of Wagah, Gulberg, Nishtar and Data Ganj Bakhsh towns to establish bazaars in their respective areas. However, members of the Christian community complained that the promised bazaars existed only on paper and in the speeches of the leaders. “There are 250,000 residents in Yahunabad alone, which is the largest Christian neighbourhood in the metropolitan with around 30,000 registered voters but the government has not set up even a single bazaar so far,” Napolean Qayyum, a resident of Yahunabad told Pakistan Today. “The minorities have to celebrate the event while no support has been shown by the government or even minority members. Billions of rupees are given in subsidy for Ramzan bazaars, while nothing has been earmarked for us by the government despite announcements and media campaigns,” he said. Minority leaders too have shown indifference to the Christian community on Christmas eve. The residents complained that Senator Kamran Michael has been exploiting the poor Christians to score points but without any actual work on ground. “The Christian population is being exploited by our representatives who fail to deliver on their promises,” Yaqoob Masih complained. “No one took any initiative on such a special occasion,” he added. Yaqoob said that in recent days Senator Michael had arranged two public gatherings for Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif. “Both gatherings were organised with the help of two affluent Christians – Bishop Azad Marshal and Pastor Anwar Fazal – who don’t even relate with the poor members of their community. This is a clear manifestation of how the selected representatives of the minorities and our so-called religious leaders exploit the entire community for their vested interests,” he said, adding that no other minority lawmaker had also taken the initiative of checking whether the government was actually delivering on its promises. “They are all thieves and liars and concerned only about their own well being. I only wish we get to elect our representatives rather than suffering at the hands of those imposed on us by these political parties,” said the agitated man. Punjab government spokesman Senator Pervaiz Rasheed told Pakistan Today that the matter falls within city district jurisdiction and hence he could not comment. DCO Noorul Ameen Mengal’s spokesperson refused to comment. Senator Kamran Micheal, too, was unavailable for comments.