Islamabad: A Hindu legislator of the Opposition PML-Q, who migrated to India last month from Pakistan, did so on his own free will, a ruling PPP leader has said adding that many people from the minority community in Sindh province have been moving to the neighbouring country.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) spokesman Latif Mughal sought to dispel the impression that PML-Q legislator Ram Singh Sodho, a member of the Sindh assembly, emigrated to India because of "any sort of victimisation".
Sodho, a maternal cousin of former Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, started his emigration process during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf and two of his sons and other family members had shifted to Sodho Camp in Bhuj in India's Gujarat state as far back as 2000, Mughal said.
The legislator had "migrated to India voluntarily and many people from the Hindu community in Sindh have been moving to India of their own free will", Mughal said.
Reports of 66-year-old Sodho's move to India last month created a flutter in Pakistan s political circles and some civil society activists claimed it was an outcome of increased repression of minority communities.
Mughal said Sodho's son Dilip Singh had died in the family's home at Sodho Camp in Bhuj during the earthquake that struck Gujarat in 2001.
Sodho's other son Guman Singh Sodho was an elected member of the Tharparkar district council and a construction contractor.
In 2005, PPP legislator Nisar Ahmed Khuhro levelled corruption accusations against Guman, claiming he had used his connections to then Chief Minister Rahim to amass millions of rupees.
In 2007, Guman moved to India without formally resigning from the district council, Mughal said.
Though reports in the media had said that Sodho was seeking political asylum in India after receiving threats, Mughal said this theory is "baseless and unfounded".
Such rumours swirled as Sodho did not formally inform the Sindh assembly regarding his plans to migrate, he said.
Sodho had never complained that he had been facing any threat, Mughal said.
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