Pakistan witness sharp rise in non-Muslim voters

ISLAMABAD: The role of minorities in the upcoming general elections in Pakistan would be crucial after a steep rise is witnessed in the number of non-Muslim voters, taking the count to current 3.63 million from 2.77 million registered in 2013 polls.

According to a report, Hindu voters continue to maintain their majority among the minorities, but unlike in 2013, they no more constitute over half of the total non-Muslim voters.

Just before the last polls in 2013, the count of Hindu voters stood at 1.40million while a total number of voters of minority communities was 2.77m — the former being higher than the collective number of all other minorities.

The number of Hindu voters currently stands at 1.77million. While majority of them are based in Sindh. Comes next, largest group of Non-Muslims is Christians, who are 1.64million across the country while over one million settled in Punjab followed by over 200,000 in Sindh.

Similarly, the total number of Ahmadi voters is 167,505 — most of whom reside in Punjab, followed by Sindh and then Islamabad. The number in 2013 stood at 115,966.

The Sikh voters are usually small in numbers as they are counted 8,852 and most of them are settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) followed by Sindh and Punjab. Their presence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is more than their combined strength in Balochistan and Islamabad. Their strength stood at 5,934 in 2013.

The number of Parsi voters has increased from 3,650 in 2013 to 4,235 in 2018. Majority of them is settled in Sindh followed by KP. Likewise, the number of Buddhist voters has grown from 1,452 in 2013 to 1,884 after five years. The majority of them lives in Punjab and Sindh.