PTI nominates Gurdeep Singh as first Sikh candidate for Senate elections

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) made history by nominating Sardar Gurdeep Singh in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the Senate, making him the province’s first visibly-Sikh representative in the upper house.

Sardar Gurdeep Singh is not the first Sikh to receive a ticket to the senate but the first to wear a turban, a sign of Sikh identity. The Awami National Party had earlier elected Senator Amarjit Malhotra for the Senate from KP.

Sardar Gurdeep Singh has been granted a ticket on minority seat in the Senate. He was also previously elected as a minority councilor from Chakesar area of Shangla in 2005.

He comes from one of the most prominent Sikh families in the region. His ancestors migrated from India to settle in Shangla where his father is a well-known businessman and grain trader for the past 40 years.

Sardar Gurdeep Singh joined PTI following the assassination of his brother-in-law Sardar Soren Singh in 2016. Sardar Soren Singh worked as a special assistant to chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkwa during the previous PTI government.

Gurdeep Singh has been working as vice president of the party’s central minority wing ever since. Gurdeep has huge support among Sikhs in the local community for seeing a turban-wearing member of their community in the senate is a good omen for the country’s Sikh population.