KARACHI: The first Sikh from Sindh province submitted his nomination for an MPA (Member Provincial Assembly) seat reserved for minorities on Thursday, a local media outlet reported.
Ramesh Singh Khalsa has applied for a ticket from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and while the party itself has not announced the names of ticket holders, Khalsa remains hopeful that he will be given a change to contest the elections under PPP’s banner.
The patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Sikh Council had also previously won the ‘Sikhs in Charity’ award in Canada for 16 years of dedication to the rights of Sikh and other minority communities. Khalsa said that Sindh remains the only province in the country that has not yet had a Sikh in the assembly. He explained that if elected, he would work towards introducing reforms dealing with security of gurdwaras, marriage laws, job quotas and providing development funds for Sikh holy sites.
He maintains that a Sikh member of the Sindh Assembly would send a positive message to community members across the province.
There are over 10,000 Sikhs who live in Sindh but no one has been able to represent the community in the assembly since Pakistan’s independence in 1947.
