Scripting history, Malani won NA 222 Tharparkar II seat in the recently concluded Pakistan elections, a first in Pakistan’s 70 years history.

Mahesh Malani, the first Hindu to win an election on a National Assembly seat in Pakistan, has said that he expects an equal relationship with India. Scripting history, Malani won NA 222 Tharparkar II seat in the recently concluded Pakistan elections, a first in Pakistan’s 70 years history. Malani, who won the elections on a ticket from Bilawal Bhutto-led Pakistan People’s Party, has said that he want’s to see an ‘equal relationship’ between Pakistan and India.

Malani also told The Times Of India that the situation for minorities, particularly Hindus, has changed in Pakistan over the years. The Pakistani lawmaker appealed Hindus who have taken migration to India that they could return to Pakistan if they want. However, those who think otherwise have the option of staying in India, Malani added.

Malani contested and won the Tharparkar-II seat in southern Sindh province, after defeating 14 candidates, the Dawn reported. The candidate received 1,06,630 votes while his opponent, Arbab Zakaullah of the Grand Democratic Alliance, garnered 87,251 votes.

Malani, a Pakistani Hindu Rajasthani Pushkarna Brahmin politician, was a member of parliament from 2003-08 on a reserved seat. Earlier, Malani also achieved the feat of becoming the first non-Muslim Member of the Provincial Assembly after winning the Tharparkar-III general seat of the Sindh Assembly in 2013.

Not only did he win the elections, he also served on a number of crucial committees, including his service as the chairperson of the Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Food.

Malani’s victory comes 16 years after 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 to the Constitution.