Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Mahesh Kumar Malani has become the first non-Muslim to win a general seat in the National Assembly.
Malani’s ascent to the Lower House’s general seat became possible after an amendment to Legal Framework Order was passed in 2002.
Malani contested from NA-222 (Tharparkar-II) seat and emerge victorious on the seat. He faced at least 14 candidates representing the Grand Democratic Alliance, Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan and several independent candidates.
In 2013, Malani was also the first non-Muslim lawmaker to win a general seat in the Sindh Assembly, PS-61 (Tharparkar-III).
He has served as the chairperson of the Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Food, and has remained a member of the Standing Committee on Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights, Standing Committee on Minorities Affairs, Standing Committee on Energy and Standing Committee on Transport and Mass Transit during the last government’s tenure.
During the Senate elections earlier this year in March, PPP’s Krishna Kumari from Tharparkar became the first Thari Hindu woman to be elected to the Senate. She was elected to a reserved seat for women from Sindh.
Published in Daily Times, July 28th 2018.
