Receiving threats in Pakistan, Hindu lawmaker resigns, moves to India

Amid rising incidents of abduction of Hindu nationals in Pakistan, the speaker of the Sindh assembly has accepted the resignation of a Hindu law maker who had resigned from his provincial assembly seat recently after receiving threats and left Pakistan for India. The development came hardly a month after the abduction of the 85-year-old Hindu priest Maharaj Sain Lakmee Geer, who had been holding this religious office since 1946 in Balochistan. Ram Singh Sodho was a member of the current Sindh assembly on a reserved seat for minorities on a ticket of the Pakistan Muslim League, (Likeminded Group). The Election Commission of Pakistan has acted immediately and notified the election of Chettan Mal, the next candidate on the party’s list of non-Muslim candidates on reserved seats. Sodho, who belongs to Mithi, in Tharparkar district, had been receiving threats for the last two years, family members said. “I cannot say who had issued him threats, but his party leaders and family members were aware of it,” Paret Lal, a cousin of Sodho, has been reported by the Pakistani media as saying here on Sunday. However, his party colleagues have denied there were any threats to Ram Singh Sodho’s life. “It’s baseless. There were no threats to his life,” said Razzaque Ramho, the deputy parliamentary leader of the PML-Q Likeminded Group in the Sindh assembly. “His eldest son had died in the earthquake and another son lives in India. He has shifted to India only because he cannot move properly due to a problem in his spinal cord,” Ramho added. In his resignation, too, Sodho cited failing health as the reason for his decision. Receiving threats in Pakistan, Hindu lawmaker resigns, moves to India Published: Sunday, Jan 30, 2011, 23:06 IST By Amir Mir | Place: ISLAMABAD | Agency: DNA