MITHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani has become the first ever member of the Hindu community (since restoration of the joint electorate system in the country under the Legal Framework Order of 2002) who has won a general seat of the National Assembly.

Dr Malani won the NA-222 Tharparkar seat in the July 25 general election with 106,630 votes defeating his nearest rival, the Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) Arbab Zakaullah, who bagged 87,261 votes.

In the 2013 election, Dr Malani had contested and emerged victorious on PS-61 Mithi. Hariram Kishori Lal and Gayanchand Essrani also held the general seats of the provincial assembly from Mirpurkhas and Jamshoro districts, respectively, on PPP tickets.

Two other Hindu community members, Engineer Gianchand and Krishna Kumari Kohli, who belong to the party and hail from Thar, are presently members of the Senate.

Engineer Gianchand heads the party’s Tharparkar district chapter. The other PPP ticket-holders from the minority community in the Thar region are Rana Hamir Singh, Surendar Valasai, Samtra Manjyani and Poonjo Bheel.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2018