Pakistan’s religious affairs minister said Wednesday that the majority of members of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet had opposed the inclusion of a member of the Ahmaddiya community in the National Minorities Commission.

“We had forwarded two summaries to the federal cabinet…one on April 21 and the second one on May 5,” Qadri told SAMAA TV anchorperson Nadeem Malik in an interview.” He added that the ministry didn’t even mention the Ahmaddiya community in the summaries.

Qadri was responding to news reports that the Cabinet had initially decided to include an Ahmadi representative as a non-Muslim member in the Commission. Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in 1974.

The Minister added that they did have a discussion over it in the cabinet meeting. “We had a discussion over it and no [such] decision was taken.”

Related: No Ahmadi appointed to minority commission, says religion minister

The minister said that some five or six cabinet members were of the view that Ahmadis should be made members of the commission but the majority was against it.

“In cabinet’s minutes [of the meeting], the discussion was made to look like a decision and I sent a dissenting note against it,” Qadri told Malik.

The minister said that he believes the Ahamdiyya community is not like other minorities, and that the Constitution and Islam give minorities protection and rights “but Qadiani are not such a minority”.

The government had approved the summary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs on May 5 and appointed Chela Ram Kewlani as the commission’s chairman. Kewlani belongs to the Hindu community in Sindh.

Mufti Gulzar Naeemi and Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad are the Muslim members of the commission.

The commission has three members each from the Hindu and Christian communities. It has two Sikh, two Kalash and one Parsi member.