ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: Due to lack of research works, political parties in the country have never harnessed the potentials of minority votes.

If handled efficiently, minority votes can change the results in over 160 National Assembly constituencies.

`The minority votes in these 160 constituencies can play a decisive role as the wining candidates bag a margin of less than 5,000 votes, whereas the number of registered voters belonging to religious minorities is significantly higher.

These research-based statistics were shared with the participants of a function held to launch a book, Religious Minorities in Pakistan`s Elections compiled by Church World Service here Thursday.

Tahir Mehdi, the lead re-searcher and author of the book, said it was the failure of political parties to assess the post-election scenario and keep an eye on the demographic changes.

The book says NA-125 has 43,000 minority votes and the seat has been won by Khawaja Saad Rafiq by obtaining 70,752 votes. Similarly, NA-126, also held by the PML-N, has 28,000 registered votes of the minority community.

This seat is held by Umer Sohail Zia Butt, who got 69,718 votes, whereas Tariq Shabbir advocate of the PPP won the NA129 seat with 36,604 votes, where the number of minority votes is 32,500.

Mr Mehdi said the parties should also field candidates belonging to the minority communities on the general seats.

The study also showed that there were 98 constituencies in the country where the minoritieshad a strong presence of 10,000 to 30,000 votes. Around 30 per cent of NA constituencies in Punjab and 25 per centin Sindh have over 10,000 minority votes.

The book also highlights the unofficial and structural impediments leading to lack of political organisation among the minorities. `one major problem is frequent use of violence and harassments faced by the religious minorities; as a result, even educated youth avoid becoming active in mainstream politics,` Mr Mehdi said.

The launching of the book was followed by a panel discussion conducted by George Clamant, a former parliamentarian. He said between 1895 and 2002, the country segregated electoralsystem for minorities. Currently, the minorities have a system of reserved seats, which too has flaws.

`Now it`s all up to the heads ofpolitical parties to choose anyone for the reserved minority seats in the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies, he added.

He also said the political parties had established minority wings in their folds which actually meant sidelining the members of minority community. They should be inducted into the mainstream.

The panel discussion was, among others, attended by representatives of PML-N, Pakistan Tehrik-iInsaf and Jamiat Ulema Islam.

They said the special `minority wings` had been created to provide a secure position to the minority members.

However, minister of state for national harmony Akram Masih Gill called upon the members of Christian, Sikh, Hindu and other communities to be more politically active.