Sikh among 37 MPAs made parliamentary secretaries

LAHORE: Thirty-seven MPAs of Punjab Assembly, including a Sikh, have been made parliamentary secretaries and a notification in this regard been issued.

The list of parliamentary secretaries includes no woman MPA. Mahendar Pal Singh of PTI has become the first parliamentary secretary belonging to Sikh Community of the country. In last tenure, Ramesh Singh Arora was the first Pakistani Sikh who took oath as MPA and served as Chairman of the Standing Committee.

Mahendar Pal was born on July 1986 in Nankana District. He is also the member of Nankana Sahib Sikh Foundation Committee and actively participated in relief activities of 2005 earthquake and 2010-11 flooding. He holds a master degree in Business Administration and after joining the PTI, he served as president PTI Minority Wing Southern Punjab, Senior Vice President Minorities Punjab Chapter and Secretary PTI Minorities, district Multan. He has been residing in Multan since 2010. He became the first PTI MPA from Punjab after July 25 general elections against a seat reserved for minority and second Pakistani Sikh to take oath in PA.

delegation: Provincial Minister for Human Rights & Minority Affairs Ijaz Alam Augustine Tuesday met with a delegation of American Sikh Organisation.

The delegation was led by the organisation director Baljinder Singh, while Srinder Singh Gul, member Pakistan Sikh Council Ramesh Singh Khalsa and Ram Singh Kataria were also part of the delegation.

The delegation lauded the efforts done by the government for the minorities; especially announcing the opening of Kartarpur Corridor.