KARACHI: A Pakistani Christian group is to conduct its first-ever political mapping exercise here in the first week of September to update its records of registered voters in the community. The move is deemed essential by Christian clergymen and rights activists as the national election is just a month away
A spokesman for Caritas-Karachi said on Saturday that an eight-member team will visit all the main constituencies in the southern port city where Christian voters are residing in. "We have formed an 8-member team of volunteers to survey the areas and collate data on Christian voters," said Riaz Nawab, a coordinator for Caritas-Karachi. "The team will begin its work early next week," Nawab said. According to him, the whole operation will be completed within a week. The data will later be forwarded to the Christian Organisations for Social Action in Pakistan (Cosap) for analysis. Preliminary studies carried out by Caritas-Karachi this week show that Christian candidates could at least pick up one National Assembly seat and two provincial assembly seats in the port city, provided they play their cards right. The minority Christian vote, valuable in deciding the outcome of some electoral contests, is concentrated in the shanty-town of Essa Nagri and Mehmoodabad. The political mapping exercise is being held in conjunction with a church voter education programme, already underway in the populous Punjab province. The focus of the programme appears to be on individual and collective voter consciousness of party manifestoes, safeguarding women's rights and shunning ethnic and communal considerations. The Catholic Bishops Conference gave their official endorsement to the voter education programme two and a half months ago when the government announced it would re-introduce the joint electorate system. "It is a fact that our people were kept out of mainline politics for two decades and so they are not as politically conscious as they ought to be in a democracy," the bishops said in a joint statement. "Our clergy, religious, catechists and animators should educate the voters about their politicial duties and responsibilities," they said. But there was also a note of caution for Christian candidates and voters. "...They [the candidates and voters] should take precautions that the Church as such is not identified with any particular party," the bishops said, while urging people to interact with people of other faiths and experience the culture of dialogue. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
