Hindu Dalit woman chairs Pak Senate session on Women's Day
Pakistan's first female senator from Hindu Dalit community
Islamabad, Mar 8: Krishna Kumari Kohli, Pakistan's first female senator from the Hindu Dalit community, on Friday chaired the session of the Upper House of Parliament on occasion of International Women's Day.
"Chairman Senate of Pakistan decided to make our colleague Krishna Kumari Kohli aka Kishoo Bai to Chair the Senate for today on Women's Day," Senator Faisal Javed tweeted.
Krishna, 40, was elected as senator in March 2018 after spending many years working for the rights of bonded labourers in Muslim-majority Pakistan. She is the first Thari Hindu woman to be elected to the Pakistan senate.
She belongs to the Kohli community from the remote village of Dhana Gam in Nagarparkar area of Sindh province where a sizeable number of Hindus live.
"I consider myself very fortunate today to be sitting on this seat...," she said before starting the session.
International Women's Day is observed across the world on March 8.
Born to a poor peasant, Jugnu Kohli, in February 1979, Krishna and her family members spent nearly three years in a private jail owned by the landlord of Kunri of Umerkot district.
She was a grade 3 student at the time when held captive. She was married to Lalchand at the age of 16, when she was studying in 9th grade.
She pursued her studies and in 2013 she did masters in sociology from the Sindh University. She had joined the Pakistan Peoples Party as a social activist along with her brother, who was later elected as Chairman of Union Council Berano.
Krishna's election to Senate represented a major milestone for women and minority rights in Pakistan.
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Will fight those who installed 'fake' Parashurama statue: Karkala Congress leader
Karkala: Town Municipality member and Congress spokesperson Shubhada Rao has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of duping citizens by installing a fibre glass statue of warrior-sage Parashurama at the new theme park in Karkala despite claiming that a bronze statue would be installed there.
Addressing a meeting held at the Bailuru Marigudi Hall on Saturday by the Karkala Parashurama Theme Park Welfare Committee demanding the installation of a bronze statue of the sage at the new park on the Umikal hills at Bailuru town, Rao clarified that the Congress had never opposed the development of the theme park or the installation of a statue of Parashurama at the park, but had expressed dissatisfaction at the BJP replacing the bronze statue meant to be used at the park with a fibre glass statue. He added that Congress aimed to unveil the truth regarding the statue.
Calling Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar's claims about the support of 65 legislators to him whom he could bring to the Parashurama hill as a bluff, Rao said that he would meet the legislator in Bengaluru itself with documentary proof to show that the statue was 'fake'. He also challenged Sunil Kumar to face the truth about the theme park.
A video containing information on the theme park, the statue, the correspondence between the government and the district administration as well as the gram panchayat, in addition to the court order was presented at the meeting.
