Pakistan Elects First Lower-Caste Hindu Woman to Senate<br />The governing party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, emerged as the largest<br />party in Saturday’s senate elections, ahead of the Pakistan Peoples Party.<br />Ms. Kumari — a native of the Tharparkar district in Sindh Province, a traditional Pakistan Peoples Party stronghold — comes from a family of peasants,<br />and as a Dalit is a member of the so-called untouchables caste.<br />The election of Ms. Kumari to the senate is remarkable in this context,<br />and the Pakistan Peoples Party has presented it as an example of the party’s liberal credentials and the importance it gives to religious minorities.<br />Ms. Kumari, who joined the Pakistan Peoples Party in 2010, said in an interview<br />that her nomination as a candidate for the senate had come as a surprise both to her and to the her community in Sindh.<br />The woman, Krishna Kumari, 39, a human rights activist and member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was elected as a senator over the weekend.<br />After the weekend elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz now controls 33 seats, the Pakistan Peoples Party has 20<br />and another opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has 12.<br />By SALMAN MASOODMARCH 5, 2018<br />ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Hindu woman from a lower caste has been elected to the senate for the first time in Pakistan,<br />a Muslim-majority country where religious minorities have long suffered intimidation and violence.
