Gurdeep Singh of Pakistan's ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf party became the first Sikh representative of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan's Senate on Wednesday when he faced rival minority candidates in Pakistan's upper house and parliament elections with by a wide margin.
Gurdeep Singh got 103 votes in the House of 145, while Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (Fazlur) candidate Ranjeet Singh got just 25 votes and Awami National Party's Asif Bhatti 12 votes.
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Election Commission authorities said five votes from minority candidates had been rejected by the chairman. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prime Minister Mehmud Khan had claimed that Singh would get 102 votes while getting one more vote, indicating that an opposition member also voted for him.
Singh, who is from Swat district, is the first Sikh representative of the province's turban in the Senate. Hindu community leader Haroon Sarabdiyal welcomed Singh's election as provincial senator and said it boded well for the minority community.
The total strength of the Pakistani party Tehreek-e-Insaf, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa meeting is 94. The additional votes were requested for members of parliamentary parties supporting PTI in the province. The members of the Senate - the Senate - are elected for a term of six years.
