Letter to Parliamentarians: Lalchand Malhi

Honorable Lal Chand Malhi Member National Assembly Federal Parliamentary Affairs Secretary for Human Rights We hope that this letter finds you in good spirits. We, members of different Scheduled castes communities would like to bring to your attention the current sociopolitical turmoil within our Scheduled caste communities created by the institutional and constitutional neglect of Scheduled castes in Pakistan. Honorable Sir, due to the non-representation of Scheduled castes in legislative assemblies, and the indoctrination of minority narrative, the rights of marginalized subaltern communities within minorities are being constantly usurped by the upper caste elite within Hindus and Christian communities. Historical oppression of Scheduled caste communities was socio-economically surveyed before partition and the representation in legislative assemblies and job quotas was duly specified for them under the Government of India Act, 1935. Government of Pakistan continued to recognize Scheduled castes as socioeconomically marginalized class but failed to take any concrete measures to diffuse socioeconomic disparities or conduct any socioeconomic survey to specially assess the plight of Scheduled castes in Pakistan. Extreme marginalization and caste discrimination coupled with bad governance could not enable Scheduled castes to break free the chains of oppression and discrimination with the result that Scheduled castes continue to be the worst victims of human rights abuses and socioeconomic exploitation particularly in Sindh and Southern Punjab. [Further read in the attached file.....]