Krishna Kumari chairs Senate session on Women's Day
Krishna Kohli expressed her gratitude for being given a chance to chair Senate session.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Krishna Kumari Kohli, Pakistan’s first female senator from the Dalit caste, chaired Senate session on the occasion of International Women’s Day on Friday.
Chairman Senate of Pakistan decided to make our colleague Krishna Kumari Kohli aka Kishoo Bai to Chair the Senate for today on #WomensDay #DoYouKnowRealPakistan pic.twitter.com/vfWP7aS3tl
— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) March 8, 2019
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had elected Krishna to the upper house of parliament on women’s reserved seat. Her election represented a major milestone for women and minority rights in Pakistan.
Krishna Kohli and Veerji Kohli, a community leader from Tharparkar.
At the beginning of the session, she expressed her gratitude for being given a chance to chair the Senate session.
“I consider myself very lucky today to be sitting on this seat, I salute Pakistan and I salute Pakistan’s people and I am proud to be a Pakistani and only Pakistani.”
Born to a poor peasant, Jugno Kohli, in February 1979, Ms. Kohli and her family members spent nearly three years in a private jail owned by the landlord of Kunri of Umerkot district. She was a grade 3 student at the time when held captive.
She was married to Lalchand at the age of 16, when she was studying in 9th grade. However, she pursued her studies and in 2013 she did masters in sociology from the Sindh University.
She had joined the PPP as a social activist along with her brother, who was later elected as Chairman of Union Council Berano.
Ms. Kohli also actively participated and worked for the rights of downtrodden people of marginalised communities living in Thar and other areas.
In November last year, was named in the BBC’s list of 100 inspiring and influential women around the world in 2018.
“Krishna was elected to the Pakistan Senate after campaigning for women’s rights, having previously been forced into bonded labour for three years,” reads the BBC’s website.
The list included women like Chelsea Clinton, daughter of 2017 US presidential election candidate Hilary Clinton for her work with the Clinton Foundation to Syrian student Nujeen Mustafa who fled the Syrian war in her wheelchair and campaigns for refugees with disabilities.
