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Work comes to a halt at minorities commission

NewsWork comes to a halt at minorities commission

Work at the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has come to a “screeching halt” in the absence of its core team members and the chairman, according to its former chairman who completed his tenure last month. Seven core positions, including the chairman’s post, are lying vacant.

The last chairman of NCM was Naseem Ahmad, whose tenure ended on 3 March 2017. A few days later, Dadi E. Mistry, a Zoroastrian, finished his tenure and left the Commission. Earlier, the only “majority community position” in the Commission, which was occupied by Parveen Dawar, became vacant from 26 January this year. However, these are the seats that got vacant this year, but the member position of a Sikh representative at the NCM has been lying vacant since Dr Ajaib Singh finished his tenure in September 2015.

The Christian community’s member position has been lying vacant since Mabel Rebello finished his tenure in December 2016, while the Muslim community’s member position has been lying vacant since Prof Farida Abdullah Khan finished his tenure in October 2016. The Buddhist community’s member position has been lying vacant since T.N. Shanoo left office in May 2016.

Naseem Ahmad said, “Even when I was the chairman, the member posts had started getting vacant one by one because the existing members’ tenure had reached its maturity date. I had written several times to the Ministry of Minority Affairs that the work flow gets seriously affected in the absence of members. People in the ministry told me that they are working on the new appointments and that we should be patient. When my tenure was completed, the only member left was a Parsi member, but a few days later, his tenure too ended and all the positions in the commission’s core team were left vacant.”

“The work that a Chairman of the Minorities Commission does can be authorised by him/her only because no other member or even the vice-chairman has been given the power to exercise on certain matters. This means that without the chairman, the Commission is as good as nothing. Along with the vacant positions of all members, work at NCM has come to a screeching halt. If the positions of one or two members remain vacant, work gets affected. But when the chairman’s position is vacant, no orders can be passed or actions taken, which means that the complaints coming to the NCM will pile up and a lot of work will be put on hold.”

When The Sunday Guardian tried to call on the numbers given on the NCM website, none of the calls were received. Even the toll-free helpline number remained unresponsive.

None of the NCM officials were approachable for a comment on how the Commission is functioning in the absence of its chairman and members. Sources within the Ministry of Minority Affairs said that the process to fill the vacant positions is in progress.

 

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