1m new minority voters in four years

Nadra announces initiatives to help the minority communities

Pakistan recorded a 22 per cent increase in the number of voters belonging to religious minorities in the past four years, according to National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) data.

The number of voters belonging to minority communities in the country has now increased to 4.43 million from 3.63 million in 2018 — reporting a 22 per cent increase in four years. Hindu voters continue to be the majority among the minorities in Pakistan.

“Nadra has so far registered 4.43 million persons belonging to minority communities including Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists across the country,” said Nadra Chairman Tariq Malik during a consultative session with an interfaith delegation.

The dialogue was led by Senator Kamran Michael and attended by Senator Gurdeep Singh, Senator Danesh Kumar, Senator Anwar Lal Dean, Senator Krishna Bai, MNA Naveed Aamir Jeeva, and MPA Shakeel Marcus Khokhar. The officials from the Pakistani minority communities raised issues faced by their communities, especially those related to getting legal documents and ID cards.

Malik assured them of support.

Preferential treatment

He announced a special counter and preferential treatment at Nadra registration centres for people belonging to different ethnic and religious minorities across Pakistan.

The organisation has also launched a special registration campaign titled ‘Identity Empowerment’ to speed up the process of registration of minorities in the country. Another key initiative announced is free identity cards for those applying for the first time to facilitate minority communities.