PESHAWAR
The first-ever open kutcheri for minorities was arranged in the provincial capital on Thursday aimed at resolving the issues confronting these communities.
The session was organized by the provincial department of Awqaf, Hajj, Religious and Minority Affairs at St. John’s Cathedral Church Peshawar.
Special Assistant to Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Minority Affairs Wazir Zada, Secretary Awqaf, Hajj, Religious and Minority Affairs attended the open kutcheri.
Representatives of Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Kailash, and other communities attended the session and apprised the authorities about their problems.
Apart from Awqaf Department, Additional Secretary of Religious and Minority Affairs Abdul Ghafoor Shah, Deputy Secretary Ali Raza, other officers of the department and media representatives also participated in the event.
Special Assistant for Minority Affairs Wazir Zada while addressing the participants said that the provincial government was taking steps on a priority basis for the rights of minorities.
Wazir Zada said that the purpose of open katcheri was to get information from the communities about their issues and create a peaceful environment for resolving their issues in a positive manner.
Secretary of Awqaf and Religious Affairs Mahmood Aslam Wazir said the doors of my office were open for the people of minority communities.
He said for the first time in the history of KP the department concerned was organizing an open court in which all government officials and officers could directly hear the problems of the minority community.
In the open court, people belonging to different minorities expressed their grievances and problems while the Special Assistant and Secretary Awqaf respectively gave on-the-spot instructions for their solution.
The Christian community requested the construction of four walls of the Christian cemetery in Nothia Peshawar and a room for the watchman.
Complaining about the loss of the endowment fund, on which the Secretary Awqaf assured to start the payment of the endowment fund next week by asking the lists from the Deputy Commissioner today, the minority community requested that the minority quota in technical and medical colleges be five percent.
Mahmood Aslam Wazir informed the session that the provincial government has reserved scholarships worth Rs 1 million for PhD, Rs2 lakh for MPhil students and Rs1 lakh for master students while 450 scholarships of 50 thousand have been allocated for higher secondary education for minorities in the province.
