Among many firsts that have recently been introduced in the country’s parliamentary politics, many of them are credited to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Tanzeela Qambrani is another addition to the list, being the first Sindhi Sheedi woman to be part of the provincial legislature.
In Sindh society, where people with African ancestry are still being discriminated against, Tanzeela is no exception.
She has experienced her share of prejudice from society.
A postgraduate in computer science from the University of Sindh, Qambrani, 39, will be the first Sheedi in the Sindh Assembly, on the PPP’s quota of reserved seats for women.
“This is a bold step (getting a Sheedi elected to Sindh Assembly) that required courage, which no one but the son of Benazir Bhutto could do, and he did it,” said Qambrani, a mother of three.
It is not the first time that her party had tried to give her an elected post.
The PPP nominated her to head the municipal committee in Matli, Badin district, which, “some influential people also from the PPP could not digest”.
An influential PPP member went against the party’s discipline and competed for the chairman’s post as an independent member.
He got the backing of other members and was elected.
The PPP challenged his election, but the election commission upheld it.
Qambrani’s name bears a similarity with the country from where her great grandparents hailed.
“My father told us that his grandparents were brought to Sindh around a century ago from Tanzania,” she said.
“That’s why,” she said, “one of my sisters was married off in Tanzania.”
“Before this day,” said Qambrani, choking with emotion, “we, the Sheedi community, were still on the unending stairs of a ship. Today, it seems we have finally made landfall after centuries of ordeal.”
“Many kind souls came across me and they helped a great deal … and the greatest example of it is our (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto (Zardari),” she said.