With EC announcement, the PPP now has 120 seats, the PML-N 90 and the ANP 13. Among the pro-Musharraf coalition parties, the PML-Q’s strength rose to 51, the MQM 25, the PML-F 5, the PPP-Sherpao 1. The JUI, which contested election under the MMA symbol, has 6. JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has held three meetings with PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari and has indicated his willingness to join the coalition but wants support for the leading government in Balochistan for which the PPP has already named its candidate for Chief Minister.

While many independents have joined various political parties since elections, 18 still remain without party affiliation. These include 12 from tribal areas where political parties are forbidden. Six tribal members recently met Zardari to assure him their support.

Out of total sixty seats reserved for women in the National Assembly, the PPP bagged 23, the PML-N 17, the PML-Q 9, the MQM 5, the ANP 3, the MMA and the PML-F one each. There is a tie between the PML-Q and the MMA on remaining one seat that will be decided throw a draw. Of the 10 reserved seats for minorities, the PPP gets 4, the PML-N 3, the PML-Q and the MQM 1.

Toronto, March 7
A record five Indo-Canadians have been elected as lawmakers in the March 3 elections in Canada’s booming province of Alberta.

In the outgoing 83-member Alberta assembly there was only one MLA of Indian origin, Shiraz Sharif, who was born in east Africa.

This time, three were elected from the city of Edmonton and two from Calgary. About 40,000 Indo-Canadians live in Calgary and Edmonton.

Two of the five new MLAs are unshaven Sikhs. The nation’s parliament has already had two turbaned Sikh MPs, Gurbax Malhi and Navdeep Bains.

With these victories, Alberta now boasts more Indo-Canadian MLAs than even Ontario that has four, though it is home to over 60 per cent of people of Indian origin in Canada.

Only British Columbia, with seven Indo-Canadians elected to the assembly in 2005, has more than Alberta.

Among those elected in Monday’s elections in Alberta is 27-year-old law student Manjeet Bhullar. Premier Ed Stelmach handpicked him for the Calgary Montrose constituency, which he retained for the ruling Progressive Conservative (PC) Party by garnering 34.5 per cent of the votes.

The big upset was the victory of Darshan Kang of the opposition Liberal party who unseated Shiraz Sharif of the ruling PC Party by just 98 votes in the Calgary-McCall constituency.

Kang polled 4,263 votes as against 4,165 for Sharif. In the last election in 2004, Kang had lost by just 300 votes to Sharif who held the seat for four consecutive terms.

McCall is an Indian-dominated area of Calgary. “But a majority of them are not Canadian citizens, otherwise my victory margin would have been bigger,” Kang told IANS.

“I am proud to be a Canadian, and an Indian to represent this riding (constituency). For the first time, there will be turbaned MLAs, myself and Manmeet Bhullar, in all assemblies of Canada’s 10 provinces,” said Kang, who came to Canada from Moga in Punjab in 1970.

In the Edmonton-Ellerslie constituency, Naresh Bharadwaj of the ruling PC Party scored an upset victory over fellow Indo-Canadian Bharat Agnihotri of the Liberal Party. Agnihotri was the sitting MLA. — IANS

Silicon Valley, March 7
One of the largest nursing home chains in the US has been sued for firing a Sikh employee, who refused to remove her dagger (kirpan) while on duty, allegedly in violation of federal laws.

Baljit Kaur Bhandal, a dietary aide employed at a Manor Care Health Services in California, was given an ultimatum by the company to remove her kirpan, a ceremonial knife worn under her clothing, or lose her job, a lawsuit filed by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claimed.

“Bhandal was constructively discharged from her employment when she determined that she could not violate the requirements of her religion in order to keep her job,” the suit filed in the Sacramento court said.

The suit states the company’s action violated federal civil rights laws meant “to correct unlawful employment practices on the basis of religion.” — PTI

Brampton, March 7
A city court has ruled that Sikhs in Ontario province can’t drive motor cycles without helmets. Ontario court judge James Blacklock gave his ruling yesterday while dismissing a challenge to the Ontario Highway Traffic Act by a local Sikh Baljinder Singh Badesha who was fined $110 in September 2005 for driving his motor cycle without a helmet.

Helmets are mandatory for all motorcyclists in Ontario under the law. Badesha, 39, who was supported by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, had taken the matter to the court, saying the helmet rule discriminated against him. He said it violated his right to practice his religious beliefs under the Canadian Charter of Freedoms and Rights.

Blacklock said fining Badesha while driving his motor cycle without helmet didn’t amount to religious discrimination. The judge said the Highway Traffic Act allowed no “accommodation” in this case as helmets saved lives in highway crashes. — IANS