Lahore, March 7: Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, a three-term legislator, was on Thursday sworn in as a provincial minister, making him the first Sikh to occupy such a position in post-partition Punjab.
Arora has been allotted the portfolio of minorities of Punjab province in Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s cabinet, a report in Dawn.com said.
Belonging to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, Arora has returned to the Lahore provincial assembly for the third term after winning the February 8 polls. Hailing from the district of Narowal, Arora was also the first-ever Sikh member of the Punjab provincial assembly taking oath in 2013. Another member representing the Christian minority community of Punjab, Khalil Tahir Sindhu, has also been inducted into the Punjab cabinet and has been assigned the portfolio of human rights
Meanwhile, Maryam Nawaz, the newly elected Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, has warned her political opponents against resorting to any violent protest, saying she would be “ruthless” if they created a law and order situation on the pretext of doing politics. Maryam, the 50-year-old daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, took oath as the first-ever woman chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous and politically crucial Punjab province last week.
Protests against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its allies continue across the country as the agitators allege that the February 8 poll results were rigged. Though jailed former prime minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independents won the maximum number of seats in Parliament, the party could not form a government. The PML-N has forged a post-poll power-sharing deal with the Pakistan Peoples Party and their consensus prime ministerial candidate, Shehbaz Sherif was sworn in on Monday. The new Punjab chief minister faced strong criticism from PTI for allegedly torturing its workers during what it called a peaceful protest in Lahore. (PTI)
