Pakistan’s Punjab province gets its first Sikh minister as Ramesh Singh Arora takes oath

After having its first woman Chief Minister with Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Punjab province witnessed another historic moment as Ramesh Singh Arora became the first Sikh minister to take oath in the Muslim-majority provincial cabinet.

Arora, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker, was elected to the provincial assembly for his third term but it is the first time he has received a ministry.

Arora hails from the Narowal district and has been allotted the minorities portfolio in the Punjab provincial cabinet, reported Geo News. Meanwhile, Khalil Tahir Sindhu, another religious minority member from Punjab, has also been inducted into the provincial cabinet alongside Arora. Sindhu has been assigned the portfolio of human rights.

Jailed former Prime Minster Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had also introduced a Sikh MPA to the Punjab Assembly in the form of Mahendra Pal Singh, but he could not return to the assembly in 2024 as the party was unable to secure its quota of reserved seats.

Since 1970, various political parties or alliances, such as the PML-N, Pakistan Peoples Party, Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid, and PTI, have formed governments. However, the PML-N stands out as the only party to bring the first Sikh MPA to the house and include him in the cabinet.