First ethnic minority lawmakers in Scottish, Welsh assemblies
ABERDEEN (Scotland), May 4: The Scottish parliament got its first ethnic minority member on Friday, after a retired businessman who came to Scotland from the Punjab was elected on a nationalist ticket.
The Welsh Assembly also has its first ethnic minority member after a Pakistan-born candidate was voted in for the nationalist party there.
In Scotland, Bashir Ahmad said he was “very proud” to represent Glasgow following his election for the Scottish National Party (SNP) via the proportional party list system in Thursday’s vote.
Since the Edinburgh parliament opened in 1999, all lawmakers have been white. After the 2005 general election, Trevor Phillips, the chairman of Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality, said there was a “chronic” lack of ethnic minority representation across the board in British politics.
Last month, Mr Ahmad himself said: “The lack of any Asian or ethnic minority voice in the Scottish parliament has been deeply felt in my community, but SNP members have righted that wrong.”
Mr Ahmad’s win comes 10 years after Pakistan-born Mohammed Sarwar became the first Muslim member of the British parliament in London for the Glasgow Central constituency.
Scotland is home to only a small proportion of Britain’s ethnic minorities: people of Pakistani origin account for less than one percent of Scotland’s five-million-strong population, according to the 2001 census.
Mr Ahmad, who was born in India but brought up in Pakistan, came to Scotland aged 20 and worked as a bus conductor and driver as he saved to buy his first shop. He then opened a restaurant and a hotel.
In Wales, Mohammed Asghar --- Oscar to friends --- said he was thrilled to have been voted into the Senedd. He was elected for Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru for the South Wales East region via the proportional party list system.
“I’m lost for words,” he said. “I’m very excited and I don’t know what to say.
“I will be serving with my heart and soul for the ethnic minorities which are an integral part of the United Kingdom and Wales.”
Mr Asghar was born in Peshawar in 1945 and was educated there. He now lives in Newport, southeast Wales. Mr Asghar is a cricket fan who holds a pilot’s licence.—AFP
