Hindu Politician Becomes First To Win National Assembly Seat In Pak Polls
ISLAMABAD: Mahesh Kumar Malani of the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) has become the first Hindu candidate to win a National Assembly seat, 16 years after non-Muslims got the right to vote and contest on general seats in the country.
Mahesh Kumar Malani contested and won the National Assembly (NA-222) Tharparkar-II seat in southern Sindh province, after defeating 14 candidates, the Dawn reported.
He received 1,06,630 votes while his opponent, Arbab Zakaullah of the Grand Democratic Alliance, garnered 87,251 votes.
Mr Malani, a Pakistani Hindu Rajasthani Pushkarna Brahamin politician, was a member of parliament from 2003-08 on a reserved seat, nominated by the PPP.
In 2013, Mr Malani became the first non-Muslim Member of the Provincial Assembly after winning the Tharparkar-III general seat of the Sindh Assembly.
He had served as the chairperson of the Sindh Assembly's Standing Committee on Food, apart from being members of various standing committees during the last government's tenure.
Non-Muslims got the right to vote and contest on general seats of the parliament and provincial assemblies in 2002 after the then president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf made amendments in the Constitution.
They also have reserved seats in the Senate, national and provincial assemblies.
Ten seats are reserved for minorities in the National Assembly, which are allotted to parties on the basis of the number of seats they have in the parliament.
Women and non-Muslims in Pakistan get two opportunities to become a lawmaker: first by contesting elections on 272 general seats from anywhere and after getting the nomination from a party having representation in the National Assembly.
In March this year, PPP's Krishna Kumari from Tharparkar became the first Hindu woman to be elected to the Senate. She was elected to a reserved seat for women from Sindh.
courtesy : ndtv.com
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Maharashtra assembly session begins with full recital of 'Vande Mataram'
Nagpur (PTI): Members of the Maharashtra assembly on Monday recited the full version of 'Vande Mataram' on the opening day of the legislature's winter session here, marking the 150th anniversary of the national song.
The House proceedings began with the customary recital of the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram, followed by 'Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha', the official state song.
Speaker Rahul Narwekar said, "It is a tradition of the legislature to recite the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram on the first day of every session. However, as this year marks 150 years since its composition, the House will recite the entire song."
The legislators then recited the full song.
Notably, the Lok Sabha has listed 'Discussion on the 150th anniversary of national song Vande Mataram' on Monday and allocated 10 hours for the debate.
The debate in Parliament is part of the year-long celebrations on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, a poem written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, and set to tune by Jadunath Bhattacharya.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hit out at the Congress, accusing it of removing key stanzas from the song in 1937 and sowing the seeds of partition.
On November 7, Modi launched year-long celebrations to commemorate the 150th year of Vande Mataram, aimed especially at youth and students to deepen awareness of the song's significance.
During the assembly session, Narwekar also announced the names Chainsukh Sancheti, Kishor Patil, Rahul Patil, Uttamrao Jankar, Ramdas Masram, Sameer Kunawar and Saroj Ahire as presiding officers. They will chair proceedings in the speaker's absence.
