Hindu woman elected to Pakistani Senate
Krishna Kumari makes history in election that saw the defeat of Taliban-linked cleric Krishna Kumari is from the lowest rung of the caste system in Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD— A woman from Pakistan’s marginalized Hindu minority has been elected to the Senate for the first time ever in an election over the weekend in which a Taliban-linked cleric was defeated.
Krishna Kumari, a member of the Pakistan People’s Party, hails from the socalled untouchables, the lowest rung of the caste system that still prevails in Pakistan and neighbouring India.
Lawmakers in national and four provincial assemblies on Saturday elected half of the 104-member Senate to sixyear terms.
Deposed premier Nawaz Sharif’s party holds a plurality of 33 seats in the upper house of Parliament after winning 15. Former president Asif Zardari’s party came in second, followed by the party led by ex-cricket star Imran Khan.
Khan’s party supported Maulana Samiul Haq, a mentor to Taliban leaders, but he fell short. Extremist groups in Pakistan have mobilized mass rallies in recent years to protest U.S. policies and support tough anti-blasphemy laws, but have failed to translate their clout into electoral victories.
Most of Pakistan’s Hindu population fled to India as part of the population exchange that followed the 1947 partition. Those who remain live on the political and economic margins, and they have endured discrimination at the hands of the Muslim majority.
“I feel delighted, this was unthinkable for me to reach the senate,” Kumari told The Associated Press.